


In which Karkat's School Doubles in Size Unexpectedly and Dave Is One of the Many Pretentious New Kids

by AlleycatIrony



Category: Homestuck
Genre: But Kanaya and Rose are in Uni?, Dave and Karkles are just massive dorks, Humanstuck, Logic, M/M, Schoolstuck, The alpha trolls/kids are seniors
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-06-05
Updated: 2016-08-21
Packaged: 2018-04-02 23:07:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 18
Words: 26,326
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4077274
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlleycatIrony/pseuds/AlleycatIrony
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Karkat returns to school after the holidays only to find out that during that time, Sollux got a little bored and hacked the rival school's system sending them bankrupt.<br/>Without any money to keep their school standing, the kids from said rival school have joined Karkat's and the highschool doubles in size.<br/>One of these new students, Dave Strider, decides that Karkat would make an interesting friend.<br/>Why? no-one knows.<br/>Shenanigans ensure.</p><p>DISCONTINUED AS I HAVE NO INTEREST IN FINISHING THIS STORY, sorry guys</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

The music that poured from the songbird’s beak in the early morning might have sounded beautiful to some, but it was the last thing one fiery red-head wanted to hear, that was for sure. It told him that his insomnia had defeated him once again. He had experienced another restless night with no help from his stoner roommate. He had more or less stumbled through the back door at three in the morning, making a tremendous racket, pulling him from what little sleep he could gain. And to make matters worse, today was one of the most important days in the school year. The first. And there was to be quite an important exam last period to revise what they were taught the year prior.

Groaning, the teenager squeezed his eyes shut as the golden rays of the new day started to pour through the shutter blinds that cascaded down the small window pane. They slowly crept across his face as the sun rose higher. The boy pulled his bright red blanket over his head in an agitated attempt at blocking the rays from moving any further across his sleepy form. Pleased with himself, he rolled onto his side and began to slip into a peaceful slumber. This happiness, however was short lived.

A single guitar string was strummed, instantly jolting the young teen awake. Annoyed at the sudden noise, his body shot upwards, resulting in the blanket quietly slipping off his face. He cowered at the sunlight and pulled and hand up to his eyes to shield it; his freckled cheeks red with anger. His crimson eyes scanned the room for the culprit that dared to tear him away from the one thing he needed most. His gaze settled on a tall, lanky figure whom leaned against his wall with the most irritating smile plastered across his painted face. Of course it was him. Everyone else knew better than to disturb the ginger’s sleep.

He flashed the dark haired intruder a glare before flipping him off in the way he did every morning when his roommate came to visit. He honestly just wished he would back off and actually allow the other sleep, but alas, he knew that wish would never come true. He just had to remain optimistic in that sense or he would most likely blow a gasket.

“Gamzee…” He rubbed his temples in frustration. The other teenager perked up upon hearing his name. “Get out. And take that vile excuse for an instrument with you.”

Gamzee faltered, his expression saddening for a moment before quickly returning to his usual cheerful self. He lifted his guitar closer to his face, examining it closely as though he had never seen it before in his life, pointed to it slowly and then back at himself, processing what the other boy had said. After what seemed like an eternity, he finally understood. Instead of leaving, however, Gamzee took it in his stride to sit himself down on the other’s bed. The mattress dipped slightly under his weight. He then strummed his guitar again, this time humming along with the notes.

“Oh Karkat, I know you just love my wicked tunes.” He grinned, showing off his sharp canines. Karkat, however, just rolled his eyes in response before throwing his legs over the side of the bed. Sure, the slightly short teen usually loved waking up to the other’s music but today he just wasn’t in the mood. “So, what’s all up and buggin’ you this fine morning, my best motherfuckin’ friend? School?”

Karkat nodded dimly and stood shakily. That was it. School. He had been dreading this moment all summer break. He couldn’t deal with the deadlines and being pushed around by the teaching staff; let alone the other students. The thing he hated most was how the teachers made out that the exams were of life-changing importance and your final grade meant life or death. Importance was something Karkat had never seemed to understand. The most ‘important’ thing he had to do during the holidays was go and see the premiere of this year’s hottest romantic comedy that was being shown at his local cinema. Even now, he still couldn’t believe he managed to get a seat.

He sighed heavily and managed to push Gamzee aside unenthusiastically with a weak arm; anger radiating from his body. The clown replied with a soft ‘honk’ and made himself scarce, obviously sensing the red-head’s sudden decline in mood. He didn’t want to be caught in the middle of yet another one sided scream-off. He noted to have a feelings-jam about it later after his bro cooled down, even if the other never seemed to talk about his feelings to him anymore.

Karkat waited until Gamzee left the room before changing. He rummaged through his drawers eventually deciding on an old, faded pair of grey jeans, a dark red pullover knit-style hat and a black and grey checked long-sleeved button up top. He wasn’t one for fashion, he would admit that much. Though, his friend Kanaya (whom he looked up to as a parental figure) had picked him up on his awkward grey tracksuit and black turtleneck sweater tucked-into-the-pants attire and told him to make himself look a little more presentable.

Standing in front of the mirror, he grimaced. The large, dark bags under his eyes were still there as noticeable as ever. The tenth grader rubbed his face with his fist stubbornly as though it would remove the shadows from his skin. Failing in his attempts to look proper and with his hair dishevelled and unkempt, he decided that enough was enough. He cursed under his breath and lifted his schoolbag off the dusty wooden floor of his small room and left to greet the new day with a delightfully disdainful comment of, ‘fuck you’.


	2. Chapter 2

Reality hit the ginger hard once the tall school gates loomed into view; rusted and menacing. Karkat let out a shaky breath and wandered into the vicinity alone, angered and very, very anxious. Gamzee had left him halfway to go and meet up with a new friend of his that he had no doubt met at one of the bars where he practically lived during the weekends. Karkat frowned as his lanky roommate bounded gleefully over to meet the Latino paraplegic. Watching as the stoner smiled brighter than he had ever seen, the shorter teen felt a pang of jealously.

When was the last time Gamzee ever smiled at him like that?

Karkat shook the thought from his mind and decided to worry about the more pressing issues at hand. He pulled his beanie-style hat over his eyes in an attempt to hide them and slowly stepped into the school grounds. There was no going back now.

He had barely made it in five metres before he was pulled aside by a firm grip and greeted with a familiar, ‘Hi KK.’ He groaned and attempted to free himself from his nerd friends’ grasp.

“Aw, c’mon KK.” The hacker spun Karkat around on the spot and the red-haired boy soon found himself standing in front of a tall, skinny teenager around the same age as himself. He wore a shirt similar to Karkat’s, just a short-sleeved red and blue print style. His yellow suspenders were strung over his shoulders and his bicolour brown and blue eyes contrasted well against his sandy blonde hair, which was spiked up in a peculiar fashion.

Rolling his eyes, Karkat made a sort of growling sound that seemed to form deep within his chest. “Fuck off, Captor.”

The Captor in question grinned; taking this as an invite to continue, “Nithe to thee you too, how wath your holidayth?”

“Cut the small talk, Sollux. You know it was absolute crap.”

“You’re right.” It was then when Sollux decided to continue walking, more or less pulling Karkat in tow. The ginger only decided to comply due to the fact that he felt too insecure walking on his own. This was going to be another year of hell, he just knew it. It didn’t help that Kanaya was a senior and had left the year prior with her girlfriend, Rose, to go to university. God knows what they went there to study with their combined interests in vampires, dark magic and whatnot. Kanaya was the only one Karkat could confide in as he didn’t trust Gamzee anymore. Not after he had accidentally told the entire school that the red-haired teen was gay.

He never heard the end of that. Karkat just hoped that maybe, just maybe all the other students had forgotten about it. After all, Kanaya tried her best to dispel the rumour, even though it happened to be more than true.

Not only that, there were also his eyes. His unnatural, crimson eyes. He hid them as best as he could, but the whole student body already knew of his mutation. There was no apparent way to stop the names of ‘Mutant’ and ‘Freak’ being thrown at the shorter boy, thus heightening his insecurities. He had tried wearing contacts once before, but his eyes had not agreed with them and he ended up visiting the hospital in order to remove the vicious eyewear.

“Do you know what clatheth you have yet?”

Karkat shook his head, agitated. “No, shitbreath. I just got here. How in the absolute fuck would I know what classes I have?!”

“Calm down KK, I wath only athking. You’re jutht lucky I got your timetable for you, becauth I knew you’d forget.” Sollux handed Karkat his subject list and while frowning at the other’s sarcastic yet awful attitude, he quickly decided to change the subject. “Have you heard?”

The ginger snatched the paper from the other and stared at it with disgust before looking back up at him warily, “Heard what…?”

“The thchool from jutht outthide of town clothed down due to the lack of funding.”

Karkat’s mood instantly changed from anger to worry after seeing the Captor’s gleeful smirk. He just _knew_ the blonde had something to do with it. “Sollux… What did you do?!”

“Hacked into a few thythtems. Fucked around with thome numberth.” He stifled a laugh as Karkat slapped two hands to his face in a _2x facepalm combo._ “What? I wath bored. Being cooped up indoorth for motht of the holidayth ith painful. I needed thomthing to do.”

‘Whatever. Let’s just hope you don’t get caught.” The red-head had given up on trying to stop Sollux’s ‘mischievous boredom hacks’ a long time ago. He decided that instead of getting involved, he would just wait. He’d be the one laughing once the other was locked behind bars for leaking secret Government information on the worldwide web. It was only a matter of time before he got caught or was he just a mastermind when it came to covering his tracks? Karkat decided it was better not to ask.

They continued waking quietly and Sollux did his best to make casual conversation but Karkat just wasn’t in the mood. He was never in the mood. He thought he passed by a few people he had recognised, but didn’t pay them any attention.

“So what’s going to happen to the students from the other school?”

The blonde turned, trying to hide his shocked expression. “Ithn’t it obviouth? They’re tranthferring here. We’re the only other thchool in the dithtrict.”

Karkat replied with a simple, ‘oh’ and turned away. That was all he needed to hear. More people. There was enough here already with over one thousand pupils, all of which seemed to hate him with a passion. Well, almost all of them. Even his close ‘friends’ seemed a little too distant around him for his liking. The only few that even remotely liked him were Sollux, Gamzee, a little overly-obsessed cat girl called Nepeta, some nerd called John and Kanaya who didn’t attend this school anymore. Sollux, however, seemed to have more luck in the friend department. Being close to not only them, but also a few other students who went by the names of Feferi Peixes and quite a lot of the seniors including Kurloz and Meulin. Then there was also her.

Karkat cast the Captor a glance. He did seem a lot livelier nowadays, but that wasn’t always the case. A few years ago, he went through a long stage of depression and had been unsuccessful in multiple suicide attempts. He never seemed to go out and when he did, he wouldn’t even speak. The reason? His ex-girlfriend. She wasn’t bad, she never did anything wrong to him. What tore Sollux’s heart from his chest was the day that she had died. The subject was still a hard one to bring up, even though it happened years ago. She was apparently in a car crash; the car being driven by her older sister, Damara. The eldest Megido was never the same after that. Her name was Aradia, and she was kind to everyone. She even made Karkat feel like his life was worth something. It was just one of the many talents she had possessed. The ginger felt himself staring to tear up trying to remember the girl and he rubbed his face with his arm before Sollux realised he was crying. If the blonde had moved on, so should he.

Before Karkat knew what was happening, Sollux had pulled him over to a large table and sat down on the chairs that were attached to it. He joined him, glad to see that the place that they sat at during the lunch breaks had not been taken over by the freshman. There were already a few sitting there, one of the faces belonging to a blonde called Vriska Serket. She appeared to be gossiping about something to the school’s not-so-friendly hipster, Eridan Ampora. Both of them were blonde, both of them were assholes. Well, they seemed that way to Karkat, others seemed to think that they were all right.

Vriska turned, grinning as she saw the pair approaching. She nudged Eridan, who appeared to gag at the sight of the Sollux. The hacker laughed at this.

“I mithed you too, fithdick.”

“Hmph.” The hipster ignored the other and looked down at the ancient history book he always lugged around with him. It wouldn’t have surprised Karkat if Eridan had the whole thing memorized by now. Vriska rested her arms on her chin and eyed the red-head slyly.

“So Kaaaaaaaarkat. How’s living with the younger Makara boy been~?” There was a sense of amusement in her voice.

Karkat rolled his eyes, disregarding this, “Shit.”

“Of course. How could I have been so blind?”

“Shut up Serket.” The sarcasm in the blonde’s voice was obvious. Judging by how everything had turned out so far, Karkat just knew that this was going to be a _great_ year.


	3. Chapter 3

The bell had rung shortly after and Karkat had suddenly found himself alone again. Turns out, no-one he seemed to hang out with shared his first class. He checked his timetable for what felt like the fortieth time that day in the hopes that maybe, just _maybe_ everything was just a dream. But that were not the case. He really did have maths first thing on a Monday morning. Groaning, he wandered the corridors of the large school looking for the room ‘F13’. Remembering where the classroom was from the year prior, he took two right turns and then a left before reached the room. He sighed heavily and made his way in, noticing the fact that half the students in there were ones he didn’t recognise. One in particular stood out, however. He had white hair, pale skin and… Were those sunglasses? Karkat noticed that one of the spare desks was located next to the new student and he took in his stride to place himself down next to him.

“Why the fuck are you wearing shades indoors?” The ginger hissed at the albino, the other turning and responding with a stoic smirk that somehow angered Karkat to no end. The short teen pulled his beanie further over his face in another half-assed attempt to hide his eyes and when he didn’t get a response from the apparent new kid, he turned to face the front of the classroom. A few minutes into the lesson, Karkat felt something jab him in the side; noticing from the corner of his eye that it appeared to be a pen.

He jerked his head back with a scowl and made an attempt to grab the writing utensil, failing when the white-haired stranger flicked it upwards out of his reach; using his other hand to pass the ginger a note. Karkat inwardly growled and took it roughly out of his hand after a moment’s hesitation. It wasn’t folded well. At least he could safely assume that the stoic boy wasn’t an origami expert. Unfolding it revealed messy red handwriting with horrible grammar and little to no punctuation. Karkat scrawled an answer out in all caps with a graphite pencil without even reading what the other wrote. Satisfied with his response, he scrunched the paper into a ball and threw it violently and the other’s head; earning an amused chuckle from the albino who decided that writing notes would get him nowhere. He leaned over to Karkat who visibly backed off to the side as he did so.

“You know, you’re supposed to read what I wrote.” He whispered.

Karkat narrowed his eyes and quickly spat out an angry reply, “Why the fuck are you talking to me?” The other shrugged.

“I shouldn’t be. My bro said that talking to little gremlins would turn me to stone.” He grinned at his own joke while Karkat looked like he was about to scream judging by the amount of crimson building in his face. If he had a dollar for every time someone made a short joke when they saw him he would be a millionaire. Huffing heavily, the ginger rolled his eyes and discreetly flipped the other teenager off.

“The name’s Dave.” He held out his hand whilst trying to hide a smirk but Karkat just looked at it scornfully before returning his gaze to the front of the room. Dave retracted his hand after a minute or so and un-scrunched the note that Karkat had returned to him. It read, _‘FUCK YOU.’_ He glanced at the ginger momentarily and scrawled out a reply, then folding it, before tossing it at his head; much in the way that it was thrown it at him. Karkat picked it up forcefully and almost ripped it upon un-folding. His eyes widened at the response.

_‘yo whats up’_

_‘FUCK YOU.’_

_‘maybe later’_

With reddened cheeks merging his freckles, Karkat tore up the note frantically afraid that someone would peek over his shoulder and see it. Amused by this, Dave ripped out another piece of paper out of his notebook and proceeded to write another. This time he passed it gently. By gently, he tossed it onto the other’s desk instead of at the side of his head. Karkat frowned and let out an exasperated sigh before reading it.

_‘so what you seem a little pissed like some kind of raging bushfire i mean because they are all angry and shit thats how their flames are described as right angry little shits you seem like an angry little shit emphasising the little part’_

Karkat quickly scribbled down a hasty reply as soon as he realised that this guy, Dave as he called himself, wasn’t going to leave him alone.

_‘WOW. FUCKING WOW. I WOULD CLAP BUT IT APPEARS THAT MY HANDS CANNOT MOVE, NOT EVEN SARCASTICALLY. I CANNOT FUCKING *BELIEVE* I SAT MY ASS DOWN NEXT TO AN INSUFFERABLE PRICK LIKE YOU.’_

He tossed it back to said prick and voiced a barely audible growl. Reading the retort with a smirk playing on his lips, Dave pressed his pen to the paper to continue the conversation.

_‘choice ass’_

_'_ _GOD FUCKING DAMN IT.’_

_‘are you going to tell me your name’_

_‘WHY WOULD I WANT TO DO THAT. GIVE ME ONE GOOD REASON.’_

Karkat noticed Dave momentarily hesitate. The albino shrugged and wrote the best reason he could come up with and passed it back to the ginger.

_‘dunno because youre hella adorable maybe is that a good enough reason its been like thirty goddamn minutes into this shitty lesson and i still don’t know your name cmon man youre leaving me on a cliffhanger here’_

Karkat held onto the paper tightly, his face masked by his hair. This guy was driving him off the deep end and he really _wasn’t_ in the mood for talking to him. He decided to just simply ignore Dave and instead concentrated on the teacher at the front whom he recognised as Sollux’s father. God knows why he was teaching math, he seemed to be more of the sciency type. Karkat directed a hiss in Dave’s direction when he realised that because of that douchebag, he had missed half of the lesson’s notes. He only finally managed to catch up to the rest of the class a few minutes before the lesson ended and after the bell rang signalling the start of lunch, he whimpered out of the classroom nursing a cramped up hand.


	4. Chapter 4

The fifteen year old wandered off in the direction of his lunch table with a scowl on his face. The encounter with the asshole otherwise known as Dave had left him in a poorer mood than he began the day with. Not to mention the fact that on his way out of the classroom, the albino had handed Karkat a small scrap of paper with what appeared to be a username scribbled on it hastily with a red pen. He pulled it out of his pocket and unfolded it, cursing at himself for actually taking a look. It simply read, ‘turntechGodhead’.

“What kind of a bullshit username is that?” Karkat mumbled to himself as he sat down at his table, not acknowledging the faces that surrounded him; or the new ones for that matter.

“Oh? And who is this?”

“Who, him? He’s noooooooobody. Don’t worry about him, ‘Rez.” Vriska tossed her hair to the side and turned to face the one who had spoken before. Her eyes appeared glazed over and her bright red hair matched her unusual choice of eyewear. She has a gleeful grin on her face as she and Vriska continued their small talk out of ear shot of the others. Karkat hadn’t noticed the new transfer, of course, he was too preoccupied with his own thoughts concerning a certain asshole. It was only when a strong hand almost pushed him to the side in excitement that he took sight of his surroundings. He was greeted with a painted face and a mess of unruly hair which smelled like cigarette smoke.

“Fucking hell Gamzee!” Karkat attempted to push him aside, growling slightly under his breath. Grinning, the clown lifted him from his seat and spun him around in enthusiasm before placing him back down on the ground after seeing his cheeks redden with anger. “Oh man, Karbro, you will never believe this!”

Karkat sighed and pressed his hand to his face. “Believe WHAT Gamzee?”

“You know how that other school all up and motherfuckin’ merged with ours suddenly?”

“How could I forget?” He cast Sollux an icy glare from across the other end of the table which only received a satisfied chuckle in response. The dark-haired teenager continued talking as though he didn’t notice the one-sided tension building.

“Well, my friend Tavbro was in that fine, fine school and now he’s here! It’s a motherfuckin’ miracle.” Gamzee whipped his head around and beckoned to the paraplegic, “C’mon Tavbro! Don’t be all up and shy now.”

The Latino wheeled himself over with an awkward smile slowly spreading across his face and managed a small wave. Karkat scoffed as he recognised the kid from earlier that morning while a few of the others at the table waved back. Gamzee took it upon himself to make the introductions and it was then when Karkat took notice of the others sitting around him. There were the usual few, their group normally consisting of Sollux, Eridan, Vriska, Nepeta, John, Gamzee and Feferi. It didn’t seem like Feferi, Nepeta or John had arrived yet; Nepeta having the day off to take care of her sick ‘friend’. Karkat had never met him though as he was out of high school and didn’t believe he existed. He had told her over Pesterchum that the guy could most likely take care of himself despite what he thought but she insisted on staying with him anyway. Feferi was no doubt hanging out with her older sister, Meenah, trying to gain some popularity cred over some of the new students.

John wandered over to the group quietly with two others in tow. The black-haired geek more or less jumped on the ginger and grinned, his bright blue eyes piercing his with undying happiness through his rectangular spectacles. Karkat wondered what had put him in such a good mood. John pointed over to a girl that looked like a female version of himself, dark-skinned, black-hair but instead of blue, her eyes were like a moss green. Circular glasses sat atop her nose and John pointed to her gleefully.

“Karkat, this is my cousin, Jade!”

Jade waved and Karkat could immediately see the family resemblance. She seemed to not only share the Egbert’s physical features, but she also seemed joyous in personality as she giggled at the angry teen’s facial expressions. John turned to the second figure and as soon as Karkat took notice of him, his face paled. Jade also giggled at this, but John seemed to be genuinely confused. The other figure grinned and began to speak.

“So that’s your name, huh? Karkitty?”

“It’s _Karkat_!” The ginger spat furiously. Out of all the people John had to make friends with it had to be that prick from his math class. What was his name again? Karkat didn’t care, in all honesty.

“Nah. I like ‘Karkitty’ better.”

It was then when a schoolbag connected with Dave’s face; sending him falling backwards. He stumbled, tripped on a table leg and fell between two trashcans. John’s face turned into one of shock and Karkat stood, bag in hand, with a smirk of victory plastered across his smug, freckled face. He then adjusted the checked collar on his shirt and sat back down as if nothing happened. All Dave could manage was a dazed, double thumbs up from his awkward position on the floor.

“Karkat! What did you do that for?”

He had no idea who it was that called out but the ginger smiled and without looking up, he softly said, almost in a whisper, “No reason. I’m just taking out the trash.”


	5. Chapter 5

The rest of the school day passed both slowly and uneventfully resulting in a tired, agitated teen dragging his bag behind him as he left the grounds. Surprisingly, he was only verbally attacked once or twice on the way from his classroom to the front gates, which was a nice change. Usually, it was every second passer-by who would think it’s their sole purpose to make the ginger’s life miserable. Karkat would honestly prefer it if it stayed as one or two comments as it was much more peaceful. In the back of his mind though, he knew the taunting would only grow worse once all of the new transfer students learned about his existence. He thought it would be best if he just lied low for the remainder of the term, at _least._

Karkat brushed his hair out of his eyes and looked up to the sky with slight exhaustion from the day’s boring hours that he had to endure. He knew that he more-or-less failed at that ‘start-of-term’ exam that he had to take that afternoon. He wouldn’t be surprised if he was transferred to those few lower learning classes for the dumb students that didn’t know the difference between division and multiplication.

He rubbed at his temples; a headache developing. He would rather die than suffer through that.

He made it to his home with ease as it was only a good five minutes’ walk from the school. It wasn’t all that appealing to the eye. It was just a small, plain home that he and Gamzee had managed to rent with what little money they had together. It was the cheapest they could find and only consisted of two small bedrooms, a bathroom about the same size, a room for the toilet and a kitchen. There was no lounge room, and they often watched television from their second-hand, wooden-style dining table. Their T.V was nothing special either. It was one of those old-fashioned, bulky, box-like televisions that they had gotten from a garage sale for about ten dollars. Even though it only played in black and white, Karkat was proud of this purchase. Both he and Gamzee only had enough food for the two of them that was held in a small mini-fridge but most of it was the stoner’s as Karkat never tended to eat much. He was a notorious introvert and spent most of his time in front of the computer which often resulted in him forgetting to feed himself.

Karkat walked up to the front step to the front door and pulled at some of the long grass beside it with a scowl. They were yet to buy a lawnmower or something similar. Their yard was almost like a jungle. He tossed the grass aside and poked at some of the peeling paint from the outside wall. His scowl turning into a disappointed frown. The house was also in a dire need for a paint job.

He rummaged through his pants pocket for the front key and after finding it, it was placed in the lock in the doorknob and turned to the side. The door ‘clicked’ open and Karkat made his way inside, dumping his bag and shoes at the entryway. The ginger slowly made his way to the bedroom and upon arriving he pulled his laptop onto his lap and opened Tumblr. It seemed Eridan was already home as Karkat’s dashboard was filled with his most recent reblogs. He looked at a few closely. It seemed he and Sollux were insulting each other via anon again. It wasn’t all that difficult to tell who it was that was anonymously messaging the other as their typing styles were very distinct. It would make no difference if they turned the anon off, as they both knew who the other was anyway.

Karkat began to idly scroll through his dashboard, reblogging a thing or two hare and there. He didn’t reblog many things, he was a notorious ‘liker’ and preferred to click on the little heart button instead of the green double-arrows.

A loud ‘ding’ sounded suddenly; Karkat almost sending his laptop flying in fright. He frowned and looked down at the blinking smiley-face icon in the taskbar. This was the app ‘Pesterchum’ and his eyebrows knitted together in agitation as he opened the chat client. Someone had begun messaging him.

-terminallyCapricious [TC] began pestering carcinoGeneticist [CG] at 3:20pm-

[TC]: I AiNt gOiNg tO Be aLl uP AnD DrAgGiN My MoThErFuCkIn aSs hOmE On tHiS HeRe bItChTiTs aMaZiN AfTeRnOoN KaRbRo  
[TC]: Im sTayIn aT TaVs pLaCe fOr tHe nIgHt :o)  
[CG]: WHO? THAT PARAPLEGIC KID WITH THE WEAK CONSTITUTION?  
[TC]: He dOeSnT HaVe A WeAk cOnStItUtIoN  
[TC]: I ThInK  
[TC]: I DoNt eVeN KnOw WhAt ThAt fUcKiN MeAnS BrO  
[CG]: I KNOW. YOUR LIMITED KNOWLEDGE OF THE ENGLISH VOCABULARY STILL MANAGES TO AMAZE ME.  
[TC]: AwWw  
[CG]: THAT WASN’T A FUCKING COMPLIMENT, SHITBREATH.  
[TC]: EvErYtHiNg iS A MoThErFuCkIn CoMpLiMeNt iF YoU KnOw tHe mIrIcLeS ThAt lIe wItHiN EaCh oNe  
[TC]: HoNk  
[CG]: I FUCKING GIVE UP WITH YOU, GAMZEE.  
   
\- carcinoGeneticist [CG] ceased pestering terminallyCapricious [TC] at 3:27pm-

Well that was a colossal waste of time. Karkat pushed his laptop to the side for the time being and pulled out a piece of paper and a pencil. He decided that since he was home alone he could finally sketch some things without a clown peering over his shoulder questioning everything he drew. Now, Karkat was no artist and that was something everyone could agree on. His drawings were nothing more than mere scribbles, but he seemed proud of them all the same. He knew that he wasn’t perfect, and it only made him want to try harder. Especially due to the fact that it kept him relatively calm. Just as he was about to put the pen to the paper, however, Pesterchum blinked again. He tossed the drawing supplies across the room in a rage and pulled his laptop back towards him.

-ectoBiologist [EB] began pestering carcinoGeneticist [CG] at 3:31pm-

[EB]: hey karkat!  
[CG]: FUCK OFF EGBERT, I’M NOT IN THE MOOD.  
[EB]: youre never in the mood.  
[EB]: anyway youll never believe this!  
[CG]: I DON’T CARE.  
[EB]: ok no but just listen.  
[EB]: *deep breath*  
[EB]: …  
[EB]: ……..  
[EB]: ………………..  
[EB]: ……………………..  
[CG]: CAN YOU STOP BEING A BLITHERING IGNORANT WARTHOG AND JUST FUCKING TELL ME?!   
[EB]: wait for it…  
[CG]: I WILL RIP YOUR WINDPIPE OUT THROUGH YOUR ANUS IF YOU DON’T HURRY UP.  
[CG]: I’M BUSY.  
[EB]: with what? you never do anything productive with your time.  
[EB]: ……………………………..  
[CG]: FFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUU  
[EB]: ……I’M PREGNANT!  
[EB]: surprise! youre going to be an uncle!  
[EB]: not funny?

-carcinoGeneticist [CG] ceased pestering ectoBiologist [EB] at 3:34pm-

[EB]: oh.

Karkat slammed his laptop shut and placed his hands in his pockets. His left hand brushed against a slip of paper and he yanked it out with a yelp. Piece of shit just gave him a paper cut. He watched the folded piece of paper flutter out of his pocket gracefully and it landed open across his bed. The only this written on it was ‘turntechGodhead’. He almost forgot about this. The ginger looked at the username with a new found curiosity. It looked like a Pesterchum handle. What else could it possibly be? With shaking hands, Karkat punched the name into the chat client and sent a rather blunt message. Hopefully he had the right guy.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This took so long to edit god I hate Archive's format  
> /Cry/

-carcinoGeneticist [CG] began pestering turntechGodhead [TG] at 3:38pm-

[CG]: DAVE.  
[CG]: SHITBREATH.  
[CG]: THIS IS YOUR GOD SPEAKING.  
[CG]: ANSWER ME YOU FUCKING TOOL.  
[TG]: i dont know who this dave guy is but he sounds hella rad  
[CG]: DID THAT IMBECILIC SHITSPONGE GIVE ME THE WRONG FUCKING CHUMHANDLE  
[CG]: I SWEAR TO GOD IF HE DID I WILL SHOVE MY FOOT DOWN HIS THROAT AND FORCEFEED HIM NEEDLES.  
[TG]: whoa shit karkitty  
[TG]: I was only fucking with you  
[TG]: that sounds kind of kinky tho  
[TG]: i mean if thats what youre into I wont judge  
[CG]: NO  
[CG]: FUCK NO.  
[CG]: THAT IS THE WORST MENTAL IMAGE.  
[CG]: JESUS  
[TG]: why are you thinking about it then  
[CG]: IT’S YOUR FUCKING FAULT.  
[CG]: WHY DON’T YOU JUST DRAW A SHITTY PICTURE ON PAINT OF THIS SITUATION AND SEND *THAT* TO ME?  
[CG]: BECAUSE YOU MIGHT AS WELL  
[CG]: IT’D BE MORE PLEASANT THAN THIS HORRID MOVIE PLAYING ON REPEAT IN MY MIND  
[CG]: IT’S LIKE A VILE DICKFONDLING PARTY UP IN MY HEAD AND I WAS FORCED TO PARTAKE IN ITS REVOLTING RITUALS.  
[CG]: I AM SHUDDERING RIGHT NOW JUST THINKING ABOUT IT.  
[CG]: THAT COMMENT WAS IN *NO* WAY ‘KINKY’ YOU DISGUSTING FUCKING SEWER RAT.  
[TG]: do you always ramble on like that bro  
[TG]: its kinda cute in a way  
[CG]: I AM *NOT* YOUR BRO  
[CG]: AND I AM *NOT* CUTE.  
[TG]: whatever you say  
[TG]: cute bro  
[CG]: STFU.

Dave leaned back from his keyboard in amusement. This guy sure liked to talk. He had a foul mouth too, but it’s not like Dave could talk. The albino was pretty bad himself when it came to controlling the cursing, but at least he was able to tone it down when talking to people he barely knew. He began to wonder why Karkat had even bothered messaging him as the ginger had made it pretty clear that he didn’t like him one bit. He pulled his sunglasses down slightly and eyed his laptop screen with a smirk. He decided not to overthink it. It wasn’t that surprising. No-one could resist the Strider charm, after all.

Karkat however was fuming. He glared at his screen with tired eyes. As he mentioned to John earlier that afternoon, he wasn’t in the mood for bullshit and that’s all Dave seemed to be speaking. It was just spewing out over the chat client in bright red text, corrupting his eyesight with its pointless drabble. Well, it was more so he who was drabbling on over nothing but he would never admit that. As far as Karkat was concerned. Dave was a royal pain in the ass. And that was all there was to say on the matter.

He should have known not to talk to this guy after their first encounter; the note passing was a complete disaster. It had achieved nothing but Karkat’s rage. Though, everything had managed to aggravate the ginger one way or another, so it’s not like it was all that surprising. Nothing could escape Karkat’s anger, after all.

Pesterchum lit up as he received another message from Dave. He grimaced and typed a reply hopping that they could end this conversation and never speak again. Why did he message him in the first place? He figured it was out of mere curiosity.

[CG]: WAIT.  
[CG]: HOW DID YOU KNOW IT WAS ME MESSAGING YOU AND NOT SOME MAGICAL GLOBEFONDLING BUTTFUCKER  
[CG]: FOR ALL YOU KNEW, I COULDV’E BEEN A CREEPER.  
[TG]: i have been sitting on my laptop since i got home waiting for a message from you  
[TG]: in an ironic sense obviously  
[TG]: im literally sitting on my laptop  
[TG]: or i was  
[TG]: if i was doing it now i wouldnt be typing shit  
[TG]: because you need your hands to do that  
[TG]: not your ass  
[CG]: DO YOU *HAVE* TO KEEP SPITTING OUT ALL THIS HEINIOUS GARBAGE LIKE SOME PRETENTIOUS HAIRBALL-SHITTING DOUCHEBALLOON?!  
[TG]: your insults give me life  
[TG]: truly a work of art  
[CG]: GREAT. NOW GO AND GRAB YOURSELF A NICE COLD GLASS OF BULGEHUMPING FUCKLICKING RAZZMATAZZ AND GO FUCK YOURSELF IN THE ASS.  
[CG]: FUCKING *THERE*  
[CG]: WAS THAT ‘ARTFUL’ ENOUGH FOR YOU  
[TG]: its so beautiful i might even shed a tear  
[TG]: anyway  
[TG]: whats your deal  
[CG]: WHAT?  
[TG]: are you always this pissy or what  
[TG]: karkitty  
[TG]: more like karkrabby am i right  
[CG]: NO. NOT ‘KARKRABBY’ YOU IGNORANT PISSLORD.  
[CG]: YOU KNOW WHAT?  
[CG]: I DON’T EVEN KNOW WHY I WASTED *MY* PRECIOUS TIME MESSAGING *YOU*. YOU’RE THE REASON THIS WORLD IS SHIT, DAVE.  
[CG]: WHAT’S YOUR FULL NAME?  
[TG]: what  
[CG]: YOU HEARD ME.  
[CG]: TECHNICALLY YOU DIDN’T HEAR ANYTHING. BECAUSE THAT WOULD MAKE YOU SOME KIND OF RIDICULOUS PARANORMAL FORCE.  
[CG]: SO INSTEAD OF ‘YOU HEARD ME’  
[CG]: PERHAPS I SHOULD SAY, ‘YOU READ ME.’  
[TG]: sudden change of topic but  
[TG]: its strider  
[TG]: dave strider i mean

Dave Strider. Just the sound of the name as it escaped Karkat’s lips in a satisfied whisper left a sour taste in his mouth. Disgusting. Just like the guy’s ominous shades and white hair. Karkat leaned back and let out an exasperated sigh as he continued to reply to the onslaught of messages that sprung from the albino’s fingertips. Usually most people would leave Karkat with a simple ‘You’re a rude asshole’ and never speak to him again, but for some reason Dave hadn’t done that. Maybe that was the only reason why the ginger hadn’t blocked him yet. Surprising considering the fact that he had blocked at least sixty people from his school in the last few months and the occasional unfortunate passer-by that made the mistake of clicking on his chumhandle.

Dave on the other hand found Karkat’s rambles to be amusing to say the least. Snickering at the other’s childish attempts to aggravate him, he pulled his legs up to his body and leaned over to the right as he snatched a bottle of apple juice from his bedside table. He took a small swig from the bottle before wiping his mouth with the back of his pale hand. In the other room he could hear the faint distressed yelling from his brother. It wouldn’t surprise Dave if he was once again talking on the phone with child services. Apparently the way his bro raised him wasn’t adequate to the way a guardian should care for a child. Dave didn’t know what was wrong with how his bro treated him, he had taught him self-defence and how to stand your ground when attacked. Perhaps it was his the fact that the two’s diet mainly consisted of Doritos and pizza. Yeah, that was probably it. Or maybe they didn’t agree with bro’s obscure puppet obsession? Whatever the reason, there was no way they could take Dave away as he was fifteen and in a few years he’d be out of the house anyway. Not to mention they didn’t have enough proof that bro was an unfit guardian. They had been trying for years and since Dave was old enough to speak on his own behalf, the court had always let him stay because he had no-one else to go to and that his education and emotional state would suffer if he were to be moved. He had no doubt in his mind that everything, like usual was fine. So he decided not to dwell on it and instead kept his attention to his laptop screen; drowning out the sounds of his bro with music.

[CG]: STRIDER.  
[CG]: YOU DISGUST ME.  
[TG]: i know

Dave’s lip curled up into a slight smile. There was something about annoying Karkat that was amusing to the albino. If anything, he wanted to get to know the ginger better.

[TG]: you wanna hang out at the mall or something  
[CG]: WHY THE *FUCK* WOULD I WANT TO HANG OUT WITH YOU.  
[TG]: dunno  
[TG]: could be fun  
[CG]: I CAN’T.  
[CG]: MY DAD WANTS ME TO HELP WASH THE CAR.  
[TG]: fuckin lies  
[TG]: that makara kid said you live with him  
[TG]: and hes off probably fucking tav over a table or something  
[CG]: OH GOD  
[CG]: WHAT ELSE DID HE TELL YOU?  
[TG]: thats it really  
[TG]: he was that stoned that he started going on about miracles and messiahs and shit  
[TG]: it creeped me out so i hightailed it outta there  
[TG]: guys fucking terrifying tbh  
[CG]: YOU’RE TELLING ME.  
[TG]: so you wanna meet up or what  
[CG]: OR WHAT.  
[CG]: I CHOOSE OR WHAT.  
[TG]: cmon man itll as fun as blending up a smuppet smoothie  
[CG]: YOU KNOW WHAT? FUCKING FINE.  
[CG]: *FINE*  
[CG]: I’LL AMUSE YOU FOR AN HOUR, TOPS.  
[TG]: cool  
[TG]: we should fuck shit up at the mall or something

It only took a few quick messages for Karkat and Dave to agree on a meeting location, that location being the place where the shoppers dumped their carts for the trolley-boys to collect later on. The ginger dragged his feet as he walked to the location whilst muttering obscenities under his breath. He pulled his beanie down over his forehead and brushed his bangs over his eyes in an attempt to hide them. The last thing he wanted was for Dave to call him a freak and run off like everyone else that seemed to tolerate him. He may have disliked the guy but he still wanted to be accepted for who he was, not out of pity like he felt was the only reason all his other ‘friends’ kept him around. He stepped up onto a rock in order to get a better look of the shopping mall, cursing his small stature. Dave seemed to already be there. His unzipped black leather jacket and plain black tee really brought out his pale skin and white hair in the dimming light of the setting sun. He was leaned up against a pole, fingers tapping away at the keys of his touch-screen mobile phone. Karkat frowned when his vibrated in his pocket and he mentally swore at himself for installing Pesterchum on that thing as well. He pulled it out and glared at the screen.

[TG]: yo where you at ive been here for like ten minutes already  
[CG]: I’M RIGHT HERE. CALM YOUR FUCKING TITS.

Karkat immediately saw Dave look up from his phone; head turning back and forth as though he was trying to pinpoint the shorter teen’s location. He jumped off the rock and rolled the sleeves of his grey and black checked top down as the breeze blew past him, giving him a slight chill. Stuffing his hands in the pockets of his faded jeans, Karkat made his way over to where Dave was standing. The albino didn’t seem to hear the other approach due the squeak of surprise that escaped his lips when the ginger tapped him on the shoulder from behind. His reaction made Karkat chuckle. Something the teen did so little that it even surprised _himself._ Thank god Dave didn’t know him very well or he’d be attacked with an onslaught of comments like ‘ _Karkat laughed? Oh god it’s the apocalypse isn’t it?!’_

The taller boy spun around after making said squeak. He adjusted his shades, face flushed with embarrassment. It didn’t take him long to replace his look of mortification with the one of little emotion with a hint of a smirk. Karkat assumed this was his neutral expression. He placed a hand on Karkat’s shoulder which earned him a swat and a grumble.

He rolled his hidden eyes and grinned, “C’mon. Let’s go.”

“Go _where_ exactly?” Karkat’s eye twitched in both agitation and discomfort. He barely knew the guy and he was already planning on taking him god knows where.

“Just trust me. You’ll love it.”

It was then when Dave took Karkat by the arm and dragged him into the mall while the ginger’s protests were shrugged off by the other’s pretentious laughter. He really didn’t want to go anywhere with this guy – and yet he found himself willingly following him after a bit as he listened to Dave’s endless tales about his bro. He really looked up to him. It was kind of… Cute? Karkat managed a small smile. Maybe he wasn’t so bad after all.

 


	7. Chapter 7

“So _this_ is your idea of a good time?” Karkat looked at his Starbucks coffee with distaste. Dave shrugged.

“Well, yeah.” Dave took a sip of his and looked down to his phone momentarily before returning his gaze to the disinterested ginger, “It’s good.”

“It’s a fucking disgrace.”

“Fight me.”

Karkat growled at the other’s smirk and crossed his arms over his chest. The heat that rose from his paper cup was beginning to thin, suggesting that his coffee had begun to run cold. He sighed and turned his head to the side. He took a deep breath in and held his nose sarcastically. “This place reeks of hipster.”

Dave scoffed as he finished his heated drink before playfully kicking the other from underneath the table. Karkat opened his mouth as though he were about to scream some kind of obscenity at the Strider but paused as he noticed the group of kids sitting a few tables across. He may have been a loud-mouthed jerk but he knew better than to teach mere children bad language. Their parents wouldn’t approve. Instead, he kicked Dave back. Harder. Dave feigned hurt before kicking Karkat back. The shorter teen returned the favour and ended up kicking Dave that hard, that the albino’s chair toppled over, taking the other with it. He lay on the floor dazed for the second time that day earning an amused chuckle from Vantas. The woman working the cash register on the other side of the room gave the two a glare of warning and Karkat mouthed her a ‘sorry’ even though he really wasn’t. Dave stood up and brushed himself off before returning his seat to an upright position.

“Shit Karkitty, a little violent, are we?” He laughed and grabbed Karkat’s hand. The ginger visibly cringed at this.

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing, Strider?”

“Getting you off your ass.” He pulled Karkat up and he wobbled slightly as he tried to balance the two, “Did you see the look that chick was giving us? I don’t particularly want to die today.”

“I highly doubt that she’ll do shit. Just look at her.”

Dave risked a glance at the cashier and frowned. Karkat was right. Her dark, curly locks appeared to be dishevelled and a few strands fell free from her hair net. She had bags under her eyes; obviously a hard worker who got very little sleep. The two boys instantly felt bad for their antics. They exchanged glances and Karkat pulled a five-dollar note out of his jeans pocket. The two dumped their coffees in the bin, albeit Karkat’s still being half full, and quietly walked over to the woman. They got a closer look at her now and to the ginger, she looked familiar. Her skin were dark much like Kanaya’s and she donned the university student’s bright green emerald eyes. He checked for a nametag and upon finding it, he read the surname aloud.

“Maryam?”

She looked up at the two and managed a weak yet genuine smile, “Yes?”

“Oh, uh…” Karkat hastily dropped the five dollars in front of the elder. She raised a confused eyebrow at this. “Are you… Related to Kanaya by any chance?” He hoped the question wasn’t too obtrusive on the other, but her smile widened and her eyes sparkled upon hearing the name.

“Why yes, she’s my youngest daughter. Are you a friend of hers?”

Karkat rubbed the back of his neck nervously, “Yeah, I guess you could say that.” He pushed the money a little closer to Kanaya’s mother and looked to the ground. “You can have this, we’re sorry for being assholes earlier.”

The cashier nodded in understanding, knowing that taking the money would help the two – or at least the shorter one – feel a little better about the situation. “Oh it’s no big deal, but thankyou.” She paused and clicked her tounge thoughtfully, “You know, maybe this will come in handy. You see, my eldest has just opened a new tattoo store in one of the town’s backstreets. Perhaps I could use this to help get the word out.”

Karkat grinned while Dave looked on politely. He felt it would be best not to comment as he knew nothing of this lady or her relations. Besides, shorty seemed to be doing a good job of keeping up a conversation even though he obviously lacked social skills. As the two continued to converse, the albino began to tap his foot impatiently. Thank god this particular Starbucks wasn’t very busy right now or they would have been holding up a line. He pulled at Karkat’s arm as though he were signalling the other that he was bored and wanted to leave. Karkat swatted his hand away and pretended to ignore him. Dave huffed dramatically and wandered away from the ginger. He grabbed a few paper napkins and set himself back down at their table and began to fold them into model aeroplanes, origami cranes and small butterflies. About ten minutes passed and he looked down at his mini-creations with a monotone gaze before tossing them into the trash. There was one he was particularly fond of, however. He carefully placed it in the pocket of his jacket and wandered back over to the front desk where it even appeared that Karkat was getting bored. Damn this Maryam chick could talk. He waved his hand dismissively as he finally decided to speak up.

“Yo, this has been great and all but we’ve got shit to do, places to be.”

Karkat raised an eyebrow while Ms Maryam appeared to nod in understanding. “Of course, I have held you up for quite a while, haven’t I?” She chuckled heartily and shook Karkat’s hand, “It was a pleasure meeting you. I’m glad to hear that Kanaya is doing fine.”

The ginger smiled and took her hand, “Pleasure’s all mine.”

As he turned to leave, Ms Maryam seemed to feel the need to call out, ‘you and your boyfriend have fun now!’ Karkat then spun back around, face red.

“He is NOT my boyfriend! I literally just met this asshole TODAY!”

He was thankful that there were only a few customers, but they seemed to pay no attention to the ginger’s outburst and instead continued to converse amongst themselves. Kanaya’s mother then laughed when Dave took Karkat’s hand and said, “C’mon babe, let’s blow this joint.”

The last thing that Ms Maryam saw as they exited was Karkat’s elbow as it connected with the albino’s side as they made their leave.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took so long to update ;o;  
> It's probably shit bc I rushed it tho

“What the _fuck_ was that, Strider?”

“What was what?”

Karkat ripped his hand away from Dave’s and growled inwardly. Hell, he growled louder the moment he saw the other’s resting grin upturn into a slight smirk, “I mean, _why the fuck are you acting all ‘buddy-buddy’ with me?”_

Dave shrugged, obviously not having a reason. Karkat turned away, crossing his arms over his chest. The two stayed silent for a moment before the albino grabbed Karkat by the hand again and started dragging him in the direction of the dollar store. The ginger tugged away but the other boy’s grip was firm.

“The hell did I _just_ say?!”

Dave chuckled under his breath, “Nothing mostly.”

Realising that this was indeed the case, Karkat kicked the other in the shin stubbornly. Dave laughed at this and continued to walk in the direction of the colourful store.

“Where are we going?”

“We’re gonna go fuck shit up in the cheapy shop.”

Karkat raised an eyebrow. The shop was tiny, so if they did ‘fuck shit up’ they would most likely get caught, removed from the store’s vicinity and promptly banned. But who was he kidding. Karkat didn’t know when the last time it was that he even attempted to have a little fun. It wasn’t long before they were inside and Dave instantaneously meandered over to a pile of costume items and pulled a yellow feathered Halloween scarf across his neck. He took an already falling apart sombrero and put that on his neatly gelled, white hair. Karkat decided to join in on the shenanigans and tossed him a purple and pink princess tutu. Dave pulled it on and struck a pose. Karkat, however, ripped his mobile phone out of the pocket of his jeans and snapped a picture of the Strider, the other in question making a startled squeak and rushing to snatch the phone of him. The ginger dodged, and quickly, albeit chaotically, emailed himself the image so that even if Dave were to delete the embarrassing photograph of himself he would always have another copy. For blackmail purposes, mostly. Also for his own personal amusement.

“Dude, delete that now.”

He glanced at his phone momentarily so that he was certain that the email went through. It did. He closed down the email app and opened his photography folder, handing the phone to Dave.  
“Here, delete it yourself.”

Taking the phone, Dave shot Karkat an icy glare from beneath his shades. “I fuckin’ will.”

“Well, do it then.”

“I will, you just watch me.”

“I don’t want to go blind.”

“Fuck off.”

The ginger rolled his eyes before taking the phone from Dave and deleting the image himself, while the other was watching of course. It didn’t matter anyway, since he now had another copy. No way was he letting the albino forget this moment. Ever.

Dave took the costume items off and placed them back upon the racks messily, not caring where the original place for them was. By this point of the afternoon, Karkat was honestly reconsidering his first initial thoughts of the albino. Sure, he was still a total poser, but really? He was just a massive dork. “Not cool at all…” He whispered.

“Hm?” Dave looked towards him and he visibly stiffened. He quickly shrugged and waved it off while the other raised an eyebrow suspiciously from beneath his shades. It was obvious he said something, so he poked the ginger in the side, “What was that, Karkitty?”

Karkat shot Dave a shit-eating grin, “I said ‘ _you’re not cool at all’_!” The albino pulled at his black jacket for a moment before crossing his arms stubbornly. He never realised that he had let his guard down, he didn’t know why. He had just met Karkat earlier that day and was unsure of whether or not he could be trusted. Though, with the way the other boy was smiling he felt somewhat safe. Almost as though he could be himself without being judged. He moved a few aisles down with Karkat in tow and he pulled two foam swords from a pile. He handed one to him and stood in a battle stance. Karkat cocked his head to the side as if to say, ‘We’re doing this?’   
Dave tapped his sword with his, as though he were telling Karkat to hit back. He did just that and it wasn’t long before the two were having a full blown sword fighting match in the middle of aisle three. Karkat soon noticed the fact that he was getting absolutely _owned_. He had no idea that Dave was so skilled with a sword – even if the ones they were ‘fighting’ with were made of foam. Dave took a swing at the other, who, in a sudden burst of self-defence, pulled his arm in front of his face to block the attack; knocking countless toys from the shelves. The two stared at each other wide-eyed once they heard an employee quickly move from the front counter. This time it was Karkat who grabbed Dave’s arm, pulling him from the store in a terrified haste. There was no way he was getting in to trouble, especially since his elder brother would most likely be informed. Kankri would most likely force Karkat to move back in with him, thinking that this was Gamzee’s doing due to the fact that the elder boy thought the weed-smoking teen was a bad influence.

Once they were a few stores down and Karkat assumed they were safe, he dropped Dave’s arm and leant against what appeared to be a pet store, panting heavily. The albino didn’t appear to be as tired from the rush and the moment he stole a glance at the store’s sign, his hidden eyes lit up and he ushered Karkat inside. Of course, Karkat protested but Dave insisted they were in here for a good reason.

The ginger looked around the pet shop as though he recognised it, even if he had never been there. Then he remembered. Nepeta had shown him and the others at the table countless photographs of this place whilst narrating each image with an excited purr once she found out she was getting a job there. Karkat looked around for the girl, knowing that she mentioned that she worked Mondays. He knew that she worked there multiple days a week, but Monday stood out as he recalled asking her ‘ _why out of all days you chose to work, Mondays?_ ’

Dave dragged him over to the reptile section of the store and while he was busy explaining all the hundreds of things that makes snakes so rad, Karkat noticed a flash of blond out of the corner of his eye. He turned to confront said flash but was confronted himself.

“Hey!”

Karkat jumped back with a squeak, “Dammit Nepeta, what did I say about sneaking up on me like that?!”

Nepeta shrugged before twirling in a small circle on the spot. She sported the dark green uniform the employees were forced to wear and donned her usual blue kitty-face snapback. Her face was covered in freckles and she had a small tattoo of a paw print on her right wrist.   
She giggled, “That I shouldn’t?” Karkat nodded before cocking his head to the side as he admired the hairstyle she had to maintain for work.

“Your hair looks nice tied up.”

Nepeta pawed at her ponytail playfully, “You think so? I don’t really like it to be honest with you, Karkitty.”

“Really? Huh.” He glanced at Dave momentarily. The albino was now over admiring the lizards in the far corner of the room. He frowned as he saw another store employee pointing at them while Dave nodded enthusiastically. They were probably discussing reptile care or the different breeds present. The second employee had dark almost-black hair which was also tied up into a ponytail and he obviously worked out a lot due to the fact that his muscles were defined even in the loose-fitting uniform. Karkat nodded in his general direction.

“The fuck’s that?”

“Huh?” The blond girl looked in his direction and her eyes lit up, “That’s Equius!”

“Equius?”

“You know, the friend I kept telling yo about but you didn’t believe he existed?” She winked, giving the ginger a playful yet mocking smile.

“ _He’s_ the guy?!”

Nepeta rolled her eyes as she picked up a kitten from the small play-pen that was about a metre away. She stroked its head and it purred in satisfaction. Karkat frowned, averting his gaze back over to Dave. It seemed that he had chosen a lizard and was now holding it aloft in victory; much against the protests of the older, dark-haired male. He took a firm grip on the other’s arms and lowered them before gently taking the lizard from his hands and placing it in a medium sized box. Karkat chuckled under his breath as he watched Dave’s expression sadden once he realised he couldn’t carry the lizard home on his shoulder.

Equius carried the box over to the front desk while Dave followed along tentatively. He sauntered behind the counter; flashing a smile towards Nepeta who grinned back. The albino stuffed his hand into his pocket and pulled his wallet out, preparing to pay for the four-legged reptile. Equius took the money from him, gave him the change he required and handed him the box which contained the lizard.

“You do have appropriate housing for this Bearded Dragon?”

“Hm?” It took Dave a moment to process what Equius had asked. He looked at the box, then to the reptile tanks on the shelves, back to the box, and then to the buff man, “Oh yeah, of course. This lil dude’s gonna have one of the coolest lizardy apartments in the whole town. My bro doesn’t know I’ve brought it yet. Do you know how hard it is to hide a giant glass tank under your bed?”

Equius and Nepeta exchanged glances but said nothing.

“I mean, your mattress hits it and shit so you’re pretty much trying to get some hella shut-eye on a giant, hard rectangle and damn is that uncomfortable. I swear I’m going to need a fuckin chiropractor after this shit’s all over and—“

Karkat grabbed Dave by the collar of his shirt and pressed his forehead against the albino’s, “Shut the fuck up, douche canoe. Grab the glorified lizard and stop harassing the employees.”   
Dave rolled his eyes in response before pushing the other away. He picked up the small box moments after the Bearded Dragon was placed in it and waved goodbye. Karkat nodded in Nepeta’s direction and she smiled in return. As they were leaving the mall, the ginger shot Dave a confused stare.

“What the fuck did you want a lizard for?”

The other sighed with a smile, “It’s my bro’s birthday tomorrow and he’s been wanting one for as long as I can remember. I’ve been saving up my money for months for this,” He held up the box and pulled it close. “I hope he likes it.”   
Karkat’s face softened and he looked towards the automatic doors of the mall’s exit with a whimsical expression.

“I’m sure he will.”


	9. Chapter 9

The two parted ways shortly after that; Dave wanting to get the Bearded Dragon home before his Bro returned from ‘work’. He hummed to himself steadily and he held the box that contained the reptile close to his chest. His bro would like it, he just knew it. The guy loved all kinds of scaly creatures and would often talk about how much he had always wanted to own one. Dave smiled softly at the thought. He remembered that Bro wanted to name it Cal Jr but he wasn’t going to let another Cal into his life. No way.

Like Karkat, his apartment wasn’t too far from the school and therefore wasn’t too far from the shopping mall either. So naturally, it only took him a good five to ten minutes to arrive at his residence. He paused before the front door a small run-down apartment and gestured to the fifth floor as though the lizard knew where he was pointing.

“What do you think lil guy? This is your new home. Pretty sweet, huh?”

The shuffling from inside the box was apparently enough to answer Dave’s question and he tugged the doors open with ease. He preferred to take the elevator instead of the stairs, even though his Bro said the stairs were best for building up his leg muscles. He only ever took them if he knew the other Strider was watching. Besides, he didn’t want to bump the box every time he took a step upwards. He pressed the ‘up’ button to the elevator and since this apartment wasn’t used by many, it arrived almost immediately. After hearing the usual ‘ding’ to ensure everyone it were safe to enter, he cautiously moved inside and pressed the glowing square that beared the number five while trying not to gag at the mess that littered the floor of the mechanical device. It looked like their neighbours were back from vacation, as everywhere was their personal dumpster. Dave made a mental note to clean it up later since they were incapable of cleaning it up themselves. The elevator finally came to a halt and snapped him out of his daydream. He stepped out onto his floor and raised an eyebrow at the muffled voices coming from down the hall. He cocked his head to the side in confusion. It sounded like an argument and it sounded like it was coming from his apartment room, which was strange to say the least considering his Bro never got back until late on weekdays which meant Dave usually got a good four hours home on his own after school. He had just spent about two of those with Karkat so he should still have two hours left, right?

He tightened his grip on the box and moved quickly down the hall to the Strider’s room. He placed one hand on the doorknob and took a deep breath inwards. Whatever was going on in there, it wasn’t good and the albino twisted the handle clockwise cautiously. The door squeaked open and he poked his head around the side to ‘scope the scene’, right as he did so he saw a flash of white and blonde – his Bro. There was someone else, too. He strained his eyes as he tried to get a better look at her. She was a well-dressed woman with her shoulder-length dark hair tied up in a high ponytail. She appeared very business-like, not at all like the kind of people Bro associated with.

Dave took a step inside, hoping that he could sneak off to his room and avoid the conflict but the door’s hinges had other ideas. The moment he tugged the door aside it squeaked louder than the fireworks on New-Years Eve. Both Bro and the other lady turned at the sudden noise and Bro’s face softened. He made his way towards the albino but the woman beat him to it.

“I take it you’re David Strider?”

Dave furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. He wanted to give a sarcastic answer but this lady, who’s nametag read ‘Aranea’, obviously meant business. He figured it would be best to be honest. “Uh, yeah?”

The woman didn’t hesitate to cut to the chase, “Pack your bags, David, you’re coming with me.”

The younger Strider cast a worried glance to the older who appeared to be utterly defeated. The woman reached for Dave’s arm but he swatted her away stubbornly before making his way over to Bro.

“Bro… What’s going on?”

“Dirk.” Aranea cast Bro a serious glare and the other visibly faltered.

“I failed.” Dave’s grip on the lizard’s box loosened as a look of utter despair crossed his guardian’s face, “I wasn’t able to stop them this time. I’m sorry.”

Dave was just about done with all this secrecy. Well, it wasn’t really secret, he had just always had a hard time understanding situations and was a little bit slow and still hadn’t put all the pieces together. “Who the fuck is ‘them’?” He raised his voice and he saw Aranea stiffen due to his language. She took a step forward.

“Child Services.”

What little pigment that was left in Dave’s face drained from his cheeks and he stood still, mouth agape in shock, “What?! No! You can’t take me, I _want_ to be here!” His desperate plea fell on deaf ears as the women shook her head bluntly.

“Until you are eighteen, there is nothing you can say or do to change this outcome.”

Dave’s shoulders drooped and he looked towards Bro for guidance. The other Strider gave him a weak thumbs up. “It’s okay, lil man. I’ll find a way to bring you home again,” he smiled sadly, “I promise.”

The younger Strider knew there was nothing he could do. It wasn’t the first time he was taken away by Child Services, but this was the first time that they had seemed so forceful about it. He feared that this time, he wouldn’t be coming back. He knew his Bro wouldn’t give up on him and a little glimmer of hope remained burning after the rest of it was snubbed out.

“How much time do I have…?” He whispered, turning to Aranea. The woman pondered this for a moment before replying with, ‘one hour’.

“That’s just enough time!”

Dirk’s eyebrows knitted together beneath his pointed anime shades, “Enough time for what?”

“Well, it’s your birthday tomorrow and I got you something hella fuckin cool,” He grinned, obviously proud of himself, “I saved up for months for it, I just need time to set it all up.”

The elder Strider frowned, obviously not liking the idea of his little brother spending copious amounts of money on him. Even so, he waved him off and the smile Dave released was filled with that much excitement it was almost as though he had already forgotten that he would be leaving the other’s care shortly. He grabbed the lizard’s box and took it into his Bro’s room and he later, after much struggling, brought the tank into there also. He rarely went into the other’s room unless it was for a good reason because damn, were those puppets creepy. He had shelves upon shelves lined with the horrendous things. Then there was Cal. Dave was pretty sure that puppet in particular was possessed but never said anything about it. There it was, it’s ghoulishly painted wooden eyes following Dave’s every move from its special place on Dirk’s desk. The albino eyed it off warily.

“Look, I’ll be out of here as soon as I’m done setting up, alright?”

Cal seemed to nod in agreement and Dave had to surpass a shudder of displeasure as he began to fill the tank with sand and wooden logs along with a decent sized water dish. He thought it all looked quite ‘cool’ when he was done, all that was left to do was rig up the heat lamp and place the little dude inside his new accommodation.

After a good ten minutes of tinkering around with the lightbulb and whatnot, Dave finally managed to finish up. He took his sunglasses off momentarily and wiped the beads of sweat from his forehead before placing them back atop his nose. He could hear the Bearded Dragon scurrying from inside the box and he chuckled under his breath.

“Yeah, yeah. I’m done now, you can come out.”

The lizard struggled against Dave’s grasp as soon as it was lifted from its temporary cardboard confinement but quickly adjusted to the light, calming down almost instantaneously. The albino gently lowered it into the tank with a smile. It seemed to not only like its new surroundings, but a small rock seemed to spark its interest and it spread itself across it, flattening it’s smooth, scaly body to better absorb the warmth from the lamp.

Dave watched it for a few minutes before opening a small container he brought from the pet store a few days prior and dumping two of its contents inside. They were small crickets. He wasn’t sure if lizards ate crickets or not but he had seen zookeepers feeding them those in reptile documentaries, so they were probably good for them. It was then he realised that he should have done a little more research into reptile care. No matter, his Bro knew pretty much everything he needed to know about them. ‘ _Speaking of Bro,’_ Dave thought, _‘maybe I could call him in now? Unless he’s chatting it up with the Aranea chick.’_

He laughed this thought off. No way Bro would be interested in someone like her, he had his eyes set on some dude with the last name ‘English’.

“Yo, Bro! I’m all done in here, you’ll want to check out this sick guy!”

Dave snickered. He could hear Bro practically running to see what he had in store. The guy never was one to have a lot of patience. Even so, he opened the door slowly as if asking permission to enter. Just in case Dave wasn’t completely finished setting up.

When the older Strider entered and saw the tank he choked back tears from happiness. He wouldn’t let them spill, obviously. He had to keep up a cool image for the lil man, but wow. He finally had his own scaly creature to care for. He strode over to Dave and pulled him into a tight and ironic bro-hug. The albino struggled against his grasp before realising that this may well be the last hug he ever received from his guardian. He gripped Dirk’s white collared shirt and scrunched up his nose, trying his best not to cry.

“I’m gonna miss you…” he whispered shakily.

Bro’s gripped Dave even tighter, his feeling of happiness quickly returning to that of grief, “I’ll miss you too, little dude.”

It was then when Dave couldn’t hold it in anymore and began to sob. Bro couldn’t do anything but pat his back comfortingly and tell him over and over that everything was going to be okay and he would see him again soon.

After about five minutes, the two ended the embrace so that Dave could go and pack with the half-hour he had remaining to get ready. With both Aranea’s and Bro’s help, he managed to get them packed quickly.

He gave bro one last hug, and he and the woman left the apartment together; Bro breaking down in tears the moment his younger brother was out of sight. His sobs echoed down the corridor and Dave had to hold his own back, knowing all too well that he may not ever see him again.


	10. Chapter 10

Karkat packed his bags the next morning for the new school day. It was now Tuesday, and he checked his timetable to see what classes he had so he could pack the correct books that were needed for those subjects.

First up he had Home Economics, which he surprisingly liked. Sewing was incredibly calming and did wonders for his anger problems. Next was a pointless Form lesson, then Art and last but not least, English. He growled as he picked up his English book. He hated it. It wasn’t like he hated the subject itself, he just had an awful teacher whom he loathed. Who was that teacher? Well, you could say they had similarities in looks and the ginger knew him all too well.

Gamzee tripped out of his room and stumbled into Karkat’s, having already gotten changed into his usual purple band tee and black skinny jeans. He seemed to have also already lit one up judging by the redness of his eyes and the stoned smile on his face.

“So, my best bro, you ready for day motherfuckin two of this here wicked schoolweek?”

“No,” Karkat replied without even looking up from his schoolbag, “I couldn’t give any more shits about it than I’m doing right now. And even then, I’m trying my hardest not to convulse under my own dissatisfaction and depression in a puddle of my own hot tears.”

Gamzee did a 180 degree turn on the spot and plonked himself down on Karkat’s bed; the mattress dipping considerably under his weight, “Heh, you’re so funny Karbro.”

The ginger rolled his eyes at this and started to pull his clothes out of his draws as he looked for a semi-decent outfit to wear, finally settling on a red long sleeved v-neck top with a black crab on it that looked like a tattoo design and a pair of ripped jeans, like Gamzee’s, which were also black in colour. He turned to the taller black haired boy and raised an eyebrow.

“So what time did you get home last night? Probably when I was sleeping if I didn’t even hear you come in.”

“You actually managed to get some sleep? That’s fuckin awesome bro!”

“Whatever. I just had a long day yesterday is all.” He scoffed.

Gamzee grinned to himself and swung his lanky legs back and forth, “Good for you Karbro! I got home at the motherfuckin hour of midnight. Tav’s brother all up and said I couldn’t’ sleep over and kicked me right the fuck out.”

Karkat managed to chuckle at this, “So what did you do to deserve that?”

Gamzee paused for a moment and tried to think back to the night prior. He shrugged in response, “I don’t even fuckin’ remember, bro!” He laughed heartily and Karkat just rolled his eyes. Typical, of course the clown had already forgotten.

“So, did you two end up fucking or what?”

Gamzee’s eyes widened and he waved his hands in front of his face dismissively, “What? No! Tav’s as ace as a motherfuckin’ bumblebee,” Karkat mentally facepalmed. That simile made no sense. What did he expect? The taller male wasn’t exactly the best at English, “He ain’t into that shit and I respect his personal space.”

Now it was time for the ginger’s eyes to widen and his mouth dropped open. Gamzee had never really cared for one’s boundaries before. He had to say he was impressed that he had matured only a little. Maybe this ‘Tav’ was a good influence. He seemed nice enough at lunch, after all.

“So what about you?”

Karkat looked up at Gamzee and raised an eyebrow, “What about me?”

Gamzee grinned and shuffled closer to the shorter boy. So much for respecting personal boundaries. Karkat pushed him to the side; nearly knocking him off the bed. The clown chuckled and steadied himself so that he was sitting upright again before nudging the ginger with his elbow.

“That pale motherfucker with the white hair seemed all up and into you.”

“WHAT?!” This time Karkat actually did push the other off the bed. Gamzee hit the floor with a ‘thud’, a soft honk escaping his lips, “You’ve got to be fucking joking, I’m not in the mood for this.”

He picked up the clothes he chose and since it didn’t look like the other would be leaving his room anytime soon, he took them into the bathroom and decided to get changed there instead. He got out of the bathroom after about ten minutes, he would’ve finished getting ready sooner if he hadn’t paused in front of the mirror to spend five minutes staring at his demonic, crimson eyes with loathing. He grabbed his bag and headed out the front door; unenthusiastically hopping down the front steps onto the overgrown concrete path that connected their house to the sidewalk. The walk to school wasn’t as lonely as he wanted it to be, he preferred to walk on his own but it seemed that Eridan was running late and the ginger ended up bumping into him.

“Oh shit, sorry Kar.” He pushed his glasses higher atop his nose with his index finger and pulled the strap of his duffel bag back onto his right shoulder. It seemed he had been texting, and the blond placed his phone into the pocket of his purple skinny jeans. He eyed Karkat for a moment before his eyes deliberately ‘pointed’ up towards his hair. He nudged the other in the side. “Notice anythin’ different?”

Karkat frowned, “No, dipshit. You still look like the same blubbering asshole to me.”

“That wasn’t’ very nice, Kar.” Eridan’s smile turned into a pout and he pointed to the bright purple streak that was more or less covering the whole front of his quiff. “I got my hair dyed partially, see?”

Karkat nodded. He did see, and he thought Eridan just looked like a douche. He didn’t say anything and instead pushed past the obnoxious male and continued walking. Eridan followed, much to the other’s chagrin, This wasn’t too surprising, however, because they were, after all, heading in the same direction.  The only thing Karat couldn’t stand was how Eridan tried to keep up a conversation.

“Sol won’t stop being an ass, Kar!” He growled. He had his phone out again and was shoving it in the ginger’s face. He was on Tumblr as usual, and was looking at his messages. There was a few and they were all similar. All on anon but all undoubtedly from the same person. Karkat rolled his eyes. Did these two ever stop? The top message was what grabbed Karkat’s attention.

_‘hey fii2hdiick, ii notiiced your thiir2ty a22 ii2 tryiing to woo me.’_

He raised an eyebrow at Eridan, “You hitting on Captor _again_?”

“The fuck do you mean ‘ _again’_?” The blonde huffed. He pulled his bicolour navy and blue scarf tighter around his neck. “The guy’s a fuckin pain in the neck.”

“Whatever, Ampora.” Karkat nodded to the school gates, “Wow, would you look at that? We’re at hell already. So sorry to part with you.”

Before the hipster could protest the ginger found himself running off in the direction of their lunch table. He knew Eridan would catch up eventually but a few minutes of peace and quiet never hurt anyone. He frowned. Never mind. There was already two people there. John and Dave it seemed. Except something was different; Dave had his head in his hands while John had an arm around his shoulders. It looked as though they were having a feelings jam, so Karkat thought it would be best not to interrupt, but still decided to play it safe and ask permission to sit with them because if they were having a moment and didn’t want him there, he’d like to know. He wasn’t a total apathetic loser, truth was, he cared too much.

“Is… It okay if I sit down or would you two like to be alone?” His voice was softer, and that caught John’s attention. He looked up and then to Dave who lifted his head in response. It looked as though he had been crying; his eyes red and puffy. His eyes. He saw Dave’s eyes and the most shocking thing was, they were the same shade of crimson red as his. Dave noticed his gaze and quickly reached out for his sunglasses. Karkat grabbed his hand, not losing eye contact. The albino looked frightened, but he still managed to whisper, “Shades. Now.”

In response, Karkat pulled his beanie off and brushed his hair out of his eyes. Dave’s own eyes widened. They were the same. How had he never noticed the ginger’s before?

“It’s okay,” Karkat muttered, “I know the pain.” He paused and looked towards John. “So what’s going on?”

The black-haired boy looked towards Dave for approval and the other just nodded. John took a deep breath inwards.

“Child Services took him away from his Bro. He’s a little bit distraught.”

The albino looked away as Karkat looked at him with pity, “At least they let me continue attending here. I didn’t end up too far away.” He chuckled shakily.

The ginger nodded, and he noticed that he was still standing. He let his bag slip off his shoulders and he took a seat next to the younger Strider.

“So what happens now?”

Dave shook his head sadly, “I don’t know.”

The three just then sat there together in silence, not the awkward kind, just plain silence. After awhile, Karkat softly grabbed Dave’s hand from under the table.

“It’ll be alright, you’ll get through this.” He whispered. The albino gripped the ginger’s hand tighter before letting out a hefty sigh.

“I hope so.”


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> sorry this took so long guys
> 
> on a side note how tf does feferi's quirk work  
> shes probs hella out of character too but idgaf

The rest of the day proceeded as normal. Well, as normal as a typical high schooler’s day could get. Actually, the whole day proceeded as badly as it possibly could have; Karkat messing up in every class in one way or another.  
Firstly, in Home Economics, not only did he snap the needle of the sewing machine, but when he was forced to hand sew his piece he pricked himself with the needle every time he pushed it through the fabric.  
In his form lesson, he was pulled up in front of the class and had to give a presentation introducing himself, which he failed miserably. He didn’t do too well in front of large crowds.   
The only lesson that seemed to go well was his art lesson even though he couldn’t ‘art’ at all. His drawings all looked awful, but strangely enough it just made him want to try harder.  
The next lesson was pulled straight from Satan’s asshole. Karkat was certain of that.

 “Karkat, could you _please_ put your phone away?”

The ginger risked a glance up at his English teacher and muttered an insult under his breath. He had been texting Dave, just to be sure that he was truly alright.  
“Fine, Christ, just give me a damn second.”

His teacher raised an eyebrow, “Keep that attitude to a minimum in this room, young man.”

Karkat rolled his eyes and sent a quick goodbye message to Dave before shoving his phone back into his pocket. His teacher frowned and shook his head. He held out his hand and Karkat cursed momentarily before reaching back into his pocket and placing the phone in his teacher’s palm. The young adult moved to the front of the classroom, placing the phone on his desk.

“Come and collect it after class, Karkat.”

The ginger was about to mutter a response when someone from the back – no doubt someone he hated – called out, ‘aww, brotherly love!’  
Why did they have to remind him that he was related to that guy?

His teacher’s name was Kankri Vantas, and like Karkat, he had the same mop of ginger hair albeit his was combed neatly and was a darker shade compared to the other’s as it was almost a brown. He had a variety of sweaters he wore to work. He even wore them in the summer, and the students that were dying from the heat all thought he was crazy. His favourite, which he was currently wearing, was a plain red turtleneck. He resumed his position at the front of the class and continued talking. The whole room audibly groaned. Once he started talking, he never stopped. Thank god he was a good teacher and knew what he was talking about though, it was rare that anyone would leave his class with any mark lower than a B-.

Karkat’s eyelids grew heavy after a few minutes and he tried his hardest to keep himself awake. Great. It was going to be one of _those_ classes. Sadly, he didn’t think Kankri would let him get away with taking a nap.

He turned to the person next to him. If he wanted to stay awake he might as well engage in some sort of idle conversation. The elder Vantas was that up himself that the ginger doubted that he would notice him passing notes. Thankfully the person next to him was someone he knew. He didn’t know her too well, but he knew her. It was a start. She had long, wavy chocolate brown hair and skin to match. She was somewhat short, around the same height as Karkat but had twice as many freckles. She was popular and pretty. It made Karkat wonder why she even bothered hanging out with them sometimes.   
He scribbled a quick greeting down on a piece of paper and handed it to her quietly. She gave him a somewhat confused look before unfolding it.

_‘FEFERI. I’M BORED.’_

She sighed inwardly and replied with, _‘karkat you know i’m not your personal entertainer 38/’_ in bright, pink, sparkly ink. _  
_ She passed it back to him softly and the ginger chuckled quietly under his breath. Sometimes she took him too seriously, but at the same time she could have been joking herself. Sometimes it was hard to tell.

_‘I KNOW, I KNOW. KANKRI’S JUST DRIVING ME MENTAL.’_

Now it was Feferi’s turn to chuckle as Karkat handed the note back to her.  
_‘) ( e) (e, i’m pretty sure ) (e drives everyone mental. i ) (onestly don’t know ) (ow you used to live with ) (im.’_  
She pushed a strand of stray hair out of her eyes and paused momentarily to gaze behind her. Sollux was sitting a few desks back. Too far back for Karkat to talk with. He had his book propped up on his desk and while it looked like he was writing notes, Karkat knew that he was actually on his phone. He did that in every class.   
Feferi scrawled out another sentence and handed the piece of paper back.  
_‘say, do you t) (ink sollux is still into me?’_

Karkat glanced in the blonde’s direction and smirked. Judging by the other’s facial expression he was messaging a certain rich boy with a new purple streak in his hair.  
_‘NAH. I HONESTLY THINK HE’S INTO AMPORA. THOUGH HE WON’T ADMIT IT.’  
_ He hesitated before adding, _‘DON’T QUOTE ME ON THAT.’_

The brunette giggled. _‘you know, t) (at ) (onestly wouldn’t surprise me. i don’t want t) (em to ) (ook up t) (oug) (.’_

Karkat raised an eyebrow as he got the note back. Maybe she was jealous? She wasn’t exactly the jealous type so he doubted it. He wrote a single word and passed it back.

_‘WHY?_

_‘because nepeta and i made a bet and if t) (ey get toget) (er i’ll owe her ten w) (ole dollars!’_

_‘WOW, TEN WHOLE DOLLARS. POOR YOU.’_

_’stfu karkat 38(‘_

Karkat looked over towards Feferi and breathed a sigh of relief when he noticed her smile. Thank god she knew he was joking, he was pretty blunt when it came to joking around and many took his sarcasm too seriously. Oh well.

Thankfully, it wasn’t long before the class ended. Karkat and Feferi still weren’t close, but at least they had been able to write to each other in order to pass the time. He packed up his classroom supplies and left the room like lightning so his older brother was unable to pull him aside for an hour long lecture over nothing; grabbing his phone on the way out, of course. He thought he had passed by Vriska on the way out of the school grounds but he ignored her. The ginger didn’t particularly fancy another conflict, even if it were from one of his friends. Even if it were obvious that she was as fake as anything.   
He kicked a small stone across the path as he left, leading all the way back to his house. Today really hadn’t been the best day and the worst part was, he didn’t really get to see Dave at all.

He paused and tilted his head upwards so he was staring directly at the sky. Why did he suddenly care so much? Well, he cared about all of his friends but he honestly didn’t think of them constantly. Just what was it with the pale boy that had caught the other’s attention?  
Was it his sarcastic, stoic attitude? The way you could just _feel_ his hidden gaze burning into your skin?  
Maybe it was the fact that he was the first one to accept Karkat for his grouchy self and not judge him based on what came out of his mouth when he was in said grouchy mood.

The ginger honestly didn’t know.  
But he desperately wanted to find out why he was suddenly so interested.


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ha I haven't even read over this lmao

After Karkat had abruptly left their conversation via text Dave had spent a majority of his English lesson scribbling sketches of his characters, Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff, in the back of his notebook. The corner of his lip curled upwards into a satisfied yet dorky grin as he began to draw a small four panel comic on the right hand side of his page. He hadn’t done all that much work this lesson, he was just happy that his teacher was somewhat slack. By slack, he meant he had a relief teacher. A substitute if you would say, and he was completely useless. More or less the first words that had come out of his mouth were, ‘do what you want. Not my class, not my problem.’ He had then proceeded to sit at the front of the room; pulling his legs up onto the desk. Dave’s substitute didn’t look all that old, maybe in his early twenties. His style was old though. That was for sure, and for some reason it looked as though he thought it made him look attractive. Dave had audibly scoffed when he saw the older male enter the room. He seemed like such a try-hard.

The lesson for Dave passed uneventfully, and the substitute didn’t even dismiss them as he left before the bell, no doubt to see the ‘friend’ he talked so fondly of. The albino had to surpass a chuckle. The way the substitute described him, he sounded like Karkat’s English teacher. He packed up his books and left the room. On the way out his hip collided with the bookshelf, making him drop his belongings in shock. Thankfully no-one saw and he picked them up quickly and left; cheeks flushed with embarrassment.

Dave had almost forgotten that he now lived in his new foster home as he turned towards the direction of his old apartment. He could easily have walked back there and greeted his Bro with a passive-aggressive, ‘’sup’. He shook his head. He couldn’t, it would only get his Bro into trouble and force him out of the other’s care for good. Probably. Maybe Dave was just being paranoid.

He walked away from his old street and instead walked back up the side of the school to the opposite corner. His foster parent was waiting in her cute aqua-green mini car. It was considerably shiny, looked rather expensive and had a red stripe running horizontally across each side of the vehicle. He could see the woman in the front seat and she was leaning over the back as though she were talking to someone. Strange, Dave didn’t remember her mentioning anyone else when he was introduced to her the afternoon before.

The albino pulled on the handle on the door of the front passenger seat and the woman turned back around and smiled warmly when she saw the other dump his schoolbag in the front before he joined it.

“I was wondering when you would show up,” she chuckled, “You sure took your time.”

“Yeah,” Dave muttered back under his breath, “Sorry, I got distracted.”

“Distracted? For almost fifteen minutes?” Came a disgruntled reply from the back seat. Dave frowned as he turned around and was greeted by a toothy smile and a red pair of aviators. He recognised her as the blind girl that sat at their table during lunch. He was pretty sure she went to the same school he did before they were forcibly moved, even though he didn’t remember her. What was her name again? Terezi? “What’s up coolkid?”

“The roof of the car, mostly.” He responded half-heartedly. The young Pyrope smirked and kicked the back of the other’s chair.

“Wow, hilarious.” She mused.

Dave took this as an opportunity to change the subject. “So, Mrs Pyrope. You didn’t tell me you had a daughter?”

Mrs Pyrope chuckled softly to herself and adjusted the badge on her suit. It looked professional. Dave wondered what she worked as. The name badge said ‘Neophyte Pyrope’. It was a strange name, but at the same time he knew a lot of people with unusual names in this country. Karkat was one of them, what was up with that name? It was almost as though his parents heard a car run over a cat and thought that would make a suitable first name for their newborn child. ‘ _Beep, Beep, Meow’_ it was like. The albino reminded himself to use that one later to annoy the ginger. He shook his head as he realised he had zoned out of the conversation completely as Neophyte was not going on about her daughter and was instead now talking about court and someone pleading not guilty even though they were? Dave was confused but then it hit him. Maybe she was a lawyer. That would make sense.

“So, coolkid,” Terezi started.

“The name’s Dave.”

The red-head frowned for a moment before returning to her usual unsettling grin. “So _Dave_ , you know a lot about that shouty boy, don’t you?”

The albino shook his head, “I only met the guy what? Yesterday? Besides, why are you suddenly so interested?”

“Dunno, he’s pretty cute if I do say so myself.”

Dave looked out the window and let out a hefty sigh of irritation. He felt jealousy seeping into his mind and he didn’t know why. It’s not like Karkat was his, after all. Maybe it was up to him to change that. He tapped the side of his face with his fingers tentatively. The shouty kid probably wasn’t even into guys, though Dave’s gay radar, or, ‘gaydar’ was beeping off the scale. He didn’t know how to explain how that worked. It was almost as though other people who weren’t 100% hetero could pick out another gay person in a crowd of hundreds without fail. He wondered why. He shrugged and continued to ignore the endless stream of chatter exiting the Pyropes’ mouths. They sure could talk.

It took a while to reach the Pyrope residence, and Dave couldn’t help but let his mouth drop with awe. Their house wasn’t exactly a mansion, but it sure was bigger than a regular two story complex and looked incredibly expensive. It made his old apartment look run-down and defective.

He took a step inside as Neophyte unlocked the front door, “Holy shit,” he breathed. The interior was also gorgeous. It was obvious that the place was kept in excellent condition. Terezi’s mother must’ve had a good eye for design also as the furniture matched the theme of each individual room perfectly. Terezi muttered something about food and headed off in what he presumed was the direction of the kitchen

“Come with me Dave, I’ll show you to the room you’ll be staying in.” Neophyte smiled warmly and Dave nodded in compliance. He followed her up a flight of stairs to the second floor and they turned left around the first corner and the albino was escorted into a quite large spare bedroom that had a beachfront like theme. He had never been to a beach himself, but he found this look to be calming. The walls were painted a sandy yellow, with the exception of a large blue feature wall. The bed he were expected to sleep in was a double, and was neatly made with a light yellow blanket. The pillows were cased in a pretty seashore design, each of the two having a single seahorse embroided into it. Above his bed was a large canvas custom painted for the Pyrope family. It, not surprisingly, was also beach themed.

Dave turned to Neophyte with a smile, “Thanks for letting me stay here Ms Pyrope.”

She waved he hand dismissively, “Oh, don’t mention it. You’re welcome over anytime.”

“Ms Pyrope,”

“Yes, Dave?”

He took a deep breath inward, “Why, out of all the foster kids, did you choose me?”

“You might not believe it,” She laughed, “but I’m a pretty good friend of your brother, Dirk’s. He figured I’d be the best one to look after you while he tried to regain custody and as a lawyer, they assumed I’d be responsible enough to take you.”

Dave’s eyes widened under his shades. So Terezi’s mother was a friend of his Bro’s. Who knew.

“How did he manage a friend like you?” He asked.

Neophyte giggled at this, “You might not know this, Dave, but Dirk has some friends in some really high places.”

Dave did not know this but he found it surprising. His Bro made puppet porn for a living, how did he have friends like that? Maybe it was best not to know.

“Well I guess I’ll leave you to it,” She breathed, “All of your belongings are over there.” Neophyte pointed over to the far side of the room. Three of Dave’s suitcases were neatly stacked against a small white desk. “Make yourself comfortable.”

Dave wandered over to the pile and plucked his laptop case from the top, gently pressing it to his chest. He had been waiting all afternoon to message Karkat, no doubt the crabby teen was home. He rarely left the house if he remembered correctly. He turned back in the direction of the bed, but he looked back in the elder Pyrope’s direction.

“Thanks Ms Pyrope.”

She smiled, “Don’t mention it, and please, just call me Neophyte. There’s no need for formalities in this house for you. You’re family now. Even once Dirk re-gains custody you’ll always have a place here, Dave.”

Neophyte waved and left the room, leaving a grinning Strider behind. He did feel at home, odd as it was, seeing as he only just got here. Since she was friends with his Bro, Dave wondered if she would let him call the other. Unless that was against foster rules or something. He didn’t think it was, besides, it’s not like anyone would know.

He sat on the bed lightly and pulled his laptop out of its case and onto his lap. This was a nice place and he wanted to tell Karkat all about it.


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> yo sorry if everyones out of character and shit in this chapter  
> i havent been feeling up to writing lately so i hope all that disinterest doesnt show in my writing oops

\--turntechGodhead [TG] began pestering carcinoGeneticist [CG] at 4:42pm—

[TG]: yo karkles  
[TG]: karkat  
[TG]: beep beep meow  
[CG]: IT’S ABOUT FUCKING TIME YOU GOT ONLINE, STRIDER.  
[TG]: aw were you waiting for me  
[CG]: DON’T FLATTER YOURSELF, AS IF I WOULD BE WAITING FOR YOUR SMUG ASS.  
[TG]: so how long have you been waiting for  
[CG]: ABOUT AN HOUR.  
[CG]: I MEAN  
[CG]: I *WASN’T* WAITING FOR YOU GFDI.  
[TG]: youre a fuckin liar  
[CG]: STFU.  
[TG]: anyway youll never believe this  
[TG]: my foster parent is a friend of my bros and terezis mum  
[TG]: isnt that weird  
[CG]: WHO’S TEREZI AGAIN?  
[TG]: the blind chick  
[CG]: OH, COOL.  
[TG]: yeah she seems into you  
[CG]: SHE CAN’T BE.  
[TG]: why not  
[CG]: SHE JUST CAN’T, ALRIGHT?  
[TG]: whoa okay no need to get snappy damn

Karkat froze in his spot and decided not to reply. Dave didn’t know he was gay, and he had almost given it away. That would’ve been a bad move. He waited for the other to make another comment to save him from embarrassing himself further; hands shaking. Dave, however, raised an eyebrow from beneath his shades. Karkat usually replied straight away, if he took into context their first few conversations. Why couldn’t Terezi like Karkat? The albino hoped he wasn’t already in a relationship. It didn’t look like he was going to get a reply anytime soon so he decided to take it upon himself to change the topic.

[TG]: oh and guess what else  
[TG]: they live in a fuckin mansion or something everything is hella expensive in here  
[TG]: they said my room is like  
[TG]: the small guest bedroom or something but its fuckin huge like holy shit  
[CG]: AND?  
[TG]: idk it just looks really cool  
[TG]: so much better than my cruddy old apartment  
[CG]: WELL GOOD FOR YOU I GUESS.  
[CG]: IT SOUNDS A WHOLE LOT BETTER THAN MY PLACE, JUST SAYING.  
[TG]: cmon your place cant be that bad  
[CG]: I CAN’T ENTER MOST ROOMS OF THE HOUSE DUE TO THE VILE STENCH THAT WAFTS UP FROM ALL THE PLACES WHERE GAMZEE STASHES HIS DIRTY LAUNDRY.  
[CG]: MY NOSE IS PERMAMENTALLY FUCKED. [TG]: well shit  
[TG]: cant you just do his washing and clear up the smell  
[CG]: *HELL NO*  
[CG]: YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW DISTUBINLY RANCID HIS CLOTHES ARE. I REFUSE TO BE WITHIN A METRE OF ANY GIVEN STENCH PILE.  
[TG]: fair enough  
[TG]: have you talked to him about it  
[CG]: I MAY HAVE MENTIONED IT ONCE OR TWICE  
[CG]: AND BY MENTIONED I MEAN I FUCKING SCREAM IT IN HIS EARS EVERYDAY BUT THE MESSAGE STILL DOESN’T SEEM TO GET ACROSS. [CG]: ENOUGH ABOUT ME  
[CG]: WE WERE TALKING ABOUT YOU?  
[TG]: oh yeah right I actually forgot about that  
[TG]: do you know how much food the pyropes have  
[TG]: theyre fuckin loaded like damn son m gonna get wasted on all these packets of doritos  
[CG]: DIDN’T YOU HAVE DORITOES AT YOUR PLACE  
[TG]: yeah but those were like those shitty home brand rip off doritos  
[TG]: you know the ones that taste like gym socks  
[CG]: HOW DO YOU EVEN KNOW WHAT GYM SOCKS TASTE LIKE  
[CG]: NEVER MIND, I DON’T WANT TO KNOW.  
[TG]: yeah no thats a story for another time  
[TG]: anyway these are real doritos  
[TG]: 100 percent authenticity  
[TG]: god they have like  
[TG]: six whole different types of pizza im in heaven holy shit  
[CG]: PLEASE DON’T TELL ME THAT YOU’RE GOING THROUGH THEIR KITCHEN RIGHT NOW  
[TG]: yea of course I am what do you take me for

In the time between when the conversation between the two started, Dave had indeed moved from the spare room to the kitchen in order to ‘scope out the sweet loot’ due to the fact that he had barely eaten anything all day. He was starving. Terezi was also in the room; biting down hard on a cheese sandwich. She didn’t seem to notice that half of the cheddar tumbled out from between the slices of bread and onto the plate once she picked it up. She grinned. It obviously hadn’t bothered her. Dave rolled his crimson eyes and looked back down at his phone as he pulled a packet of the earlier mentioned Doritos of the shelf of the cupboard. Cool Ranch, these ones were. Like him. He laughed at himself and imagined his Bro slapping him across the cheek for making such a dumb joke. He decided to tell it to Karkat, knowing that the other would probably punch a wall.

[TG]: yo karkles guess what  
[CG]: DON’T TELL ME  
[CG]: YOU’RE A PIECE OF SHIT?  
[CG]: YEAH I ALREADY KNEW.  
[TG]: wow rude  
[TG]: but youre technically not wrong there  
[TG] no ok so these doritos are cool ranch flavour right  
[TG]: like me lmao  
[CG]: AM I MISSING THE JOKE? BECAUSE I HONESTLY DON’T GET IT.  
[TG]: because im cool right  
[CG]: HA THAT’S HIALRIOUS, GOOD ONE, STRIDER.  
[TG]: okay first of all  
[TG]: fuck you  
[TG]: and the ranch part is because im Texan  
[TG]: get it its funny  
[CG]: PLEASEE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD NEVER TELL ANOTHER JOKE AGAIN.  
[TG]: just fro that im going to tell you so many more jokes because you obviously love hearing them  
[CG]: IF YOU DO, DAVE, I SWEAR I WILL WRING YOUR NECK WITH BARBED WIRE AND GORGE YOUR VOICE BOX OUT WITH A RUSTY SPOON.

Dave put a hand to his neck and felt around while surpassing a shudder. He knew the ginger wouldn’t follow up with his threats but sometimes they made him uneasy. He tried not to lose his cool though, that would be bad. No-one had managed to make Dave lose his cool before. What was it with Karkat that sent shivers down his spine? He noticed Terezi leaning over his shoulder and he nudged her back with a playful smirk. She grinned and pointed to his phone; blank, clouded eyes glinting from underneath her pointed spectacles.

“Who’re you talking coolkid?” Her voice seemed ‘rustier’ than usual. It sounded like she may have been coming down with a cough. Didn’t seem like anything major though.

“Karkles,” Dave replied dreamily.

Terezi seemed to catch on to the albino’s whimsical tone and her grin widened (if that was even possible at this point), “You’ve got It _bad_ huh?” Dave spun around on the spot, somewhat startled by this sudden comment on the redhead’s part.

“What?”

“Oh _please._ ” The young Pyrope wiggled in her spot, “It’s obvious you like the guy.”

Maybe that was it. Perhaps Dave had fallen head over heels for the Vantas. It would explain a lot. The butterflies, wanting to talk to him all the time and above all, the amount of enjoyment he got out of stirring the other up. So he didn’t try to deny it.

“Is it that obvious?”

“Very.”

“Shit,” He looked at the ground. He hoped Karkat hadn’t noticed, though if he had he wasn’t showing any signs of knowledge. “Do you think he knows?”

Terezi scoffed, “Judging by what Serket told me, and she told me a lot about everyone, he may know a lot about romance but can’t tell when someone’s hitting on him.”

Dave thought about this for a bit. He could use this to his advantage and be painfully obvious just to see how long it took for him to catch on. It could almost be like a game and he could see if his feelings were reciprocated. Now would be a good time to test it. He looked back at his phone. Karkat had gotten a little impatient with his lack of replies, it seemed.

“You know, I could always help you out even though I’m pretty sure I’d like him for myself,” She winked and Dave’s face heated up a bit. Not enough for it to be noticeable, but enough to catch him off guard.

“Nah, it’s cool. Thanks anyway ‘Rezi.”

She shrugged and slinked out of the room, not before putting the plate that once held her sandwich onto the side of the sink. There was still a few pieces of cheese on the side that she had missed. Dave was going to point it out but she had already slunk out of the room. He turned his attention back to his phone and smirked. He figured now would be a good opportunity to play around with the ginger.

[CG]: DAVE. WHERE THE FUCK DID YOU GO.   
[CG]: STRIDER.  
[CG]: IF THAT REMARK SCARED YOU OFF I HAVE SOME BAD NEWS FOR YOU.  
[CG]: I SAY SHIT LIKE THAT ALL THE FUCKING TIME SO GET USED TO IT.  
[CG]: DAVE  
[CG]: ANSWER EM BACK YOU FUCKING IGNORANT GRAPEFRUIT.  
[TG]: ignorant grapefruit  
[TG]: fuck off im a glorious dorito  
[CG]: ABOUT DAMN TIME YOU REPLIED BACK.  
[TG]: aw did you miss me  
[CG]: FUCK NO.  
[TG]: you so did dont lie  
[TG]: you love me

Karkat pushed his laptop off the bed with frustration before picking it back up from the floor and checking it over for any damages. Thank god, it was fine. Though the corner of the computer appeared to be blunted now. He could blame Dave for that but then again, the albino would know that he got a reaction and Karkat was stubborn and would never give him the satisfaction. He was just joking around anyway, probably. There was no way he could have meant that, especially since they had pretty much just met. Sudden ‘love at first sight’ infatuation like that doesn’t occur in real life, does it?

Though, Karkat himself had been finding himself more and more flustered around the other teen, even if he would never admit it. But there was no way he liked him in that way, right? The ginger’s eyes grazed over the two’s pesterchum conversation as he let out a pensive sigh.

_Infatuation like that doesn’t occur in real life._


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> im dead inside bc this chap is p much just a string of drabble bc i have no idea what im writing  
> its like  
> improvised  
> and rlly rushed  
> rip

The sunlight pierced Dave’s eyes the next morning as it crept maliciously through the open blinds of a large window that ran along the whole left side of his room. He groaned and pulled one his arms up close to his face in order to shield the glare while he clumsily reached over to the bedside table as he fumbled for his aviators. After a few minutes of irritated flailing, he finally managed to get a decent grip on the shades and he put them over his eyes. Today was going to be slow and uneventful, he could just feel it. How many weeks into the school year had it been now? Five?

He swung his legs over the side of the bed and yawned. Yeah, it was halfway through the school term. He sighed and muttered some choice words under his breath. This was the time of the term when all the exams and assignments started to pile up. He hadn’t even stated work on (or studied for) any of them. He had decided early on into his high school experience back in grade eight that he was going to drop out early. He could technically, legally, do that next year. Though, with Karkat on the scene now, he wasn’t too sure that he wanted to. He would deal with the exams and stress everyday if it meant that he could just see him.

He stood up awkwardly and he quickly reached for the bedside table to lean on so he didn’t fall over. Dave hadn’t been eating or drinking too healthily since his temporary stay with the Pyropes due to their enormous junk-food supply so he often got chronic head-spins whenever he stood up too quickly. He should’ve known that they weren’t good, considering that more often than not his vision would black out and he’d struggle to stand. But he ignored it.

Dave got changed into a plaid sleeved t-shirt with a plain white body and a pair or sweat pants. At this point he didn’t really care what he wore because everyone at school thought he looked good in it anyway. He looked into the mirror and ran his hands through his hair with a smirk. Hot people had it so easy.

The ride into school was quite boring and the albino had turned to his phone for entertainment. He pulled Facebook up onto the touch screen and held back a laugh. His newsfeed had exploded with all sorts of unironic banter, one of these posts happened to be a life event concerning Sollux and Eridan. They had started dating. He wondered to himself how much the Ampora had bribed the other for that to become a thing. They hated each other didn’t they? Well, obviously not, apparently.

He closed out of Facebook and opened Tumblr instead. He thought having a blog made him popular, as he had over ten-thousand followers, but this wasn’t the case. He mostly posted weekly updates to his comic ‘Sweet Bro & Hella Jeff’ but that’s not what people followed him for. He reblogged quite a lot of aesthetic images such as photographs of dream catchers or shells. Apparently people liked that sort of stuff. He scrolled down a few pages and he noticed that Karkat had made a personal post. It must’ve been something he didn’t particularly want anyone else to read as it was all under a ‘read more’. Of course Dave opened it up anyway, he was a snoop like that.

‘ _WHAT DO I DO HOW DO I TELL HIM? DO I JUST, NOT? FUCK. WHY DOES ROMANCE HAVE TO BE SO COMPLICATED IN REAL LIFE?’_

Dave raised an eyebrow and chuckled under his breath. Little Karkitty had a crush on someone, how cute. He low-key hoped that it was him that the ginger had feelings for, but what were the chances of that? He could always ask him today. Though, then the other would know that he was prying in on his personal posts. Oh well, it is on the internet after all, technically anyone could look at it, really.

He noticed a reply, from someone under the blog name ‘gardengnostic-puppy’.

_‘just do it karkat! He might like you back for all you know! :B’_

The car pulled up at the curb across the other side of the highschool. As usual, Neophyte waved both him and Terezi off and as usual, John and Vriska were waiting at the front gate for the two.

John and Dave had both grown quite close and we’re pretty much platonically dating. As for Serket and Pyrope, Dave was pretty sure they were a thing. It wasn’t confirmed, but it was obvious.

The two girls slunk off in the direction of Feferi’s cliché who were all sitting in a corner not far from the lunch table where they usually sat. Dave didn’t know much about Peixes number two, but he knew Peixes number one was a pretty bad influence on most of the younger students and rumour had it that Gamzee got his weed supply from her. Meenah waved the two over with a lit cigarette between her fingers and Dave couldn’t help but scrunch up his face. Did she not know the health implications of smoking? He and his Bro lost their mother that way. John waved a hand in front of his face to re-gain the albino’s attention. Dave swatted his away with a laugh.

“So Dave, did you end up getting your English draft done?” John frowned at the albino’s absent expression, “It’s due today remember?”

Shit. They had to do a draft? He didn’t know about this.

“Yeah, I totally knew that.” Dave smiled unconvincingly. The dark-haired boy’s eyebrows knitted together even more.

“You didn’t do it, did you?” He let out a sigh, “You’re going to fail.”

“Good.”

“Dave, no. Not good…”

The albino shrugged. Like he cared if he failed.

“…You might get kicked out at this rate.”

That he did care about. He didn’t want to get expelled for poor grades. He didn’t know if that was something you could get removed for but he didn’t want to risk not being able to see Karkat. Terezi was right that day, he did have it bad.

“Uh, I’ll write something up when we get to the table.”

John shook his head. At least that was something, “you’re so lame, you know that?”

“Fuck off, I’m _pretty_ sure you’re taking about yourself there, Egbert.” Dave laughed. The other rolled his eyes with a grin and the two eventually made it to the lunch table and both dumped their bags on the floor. John immediately began chatting with Jade and Nepeta, who were already there. Dave looked round and noticed that Karkat was seated in the corner with his head buried into his arms. The albino cocked his head to the side and strode over to the shorter boy. He poked Karkat in the cheek and the other physically flinched and kicked Dave in the shin.

“STRIDER.”

Dave jerked back when Karkat jumped up from his spot and grabbed the other from the neck of his t-shirt.

“Yo, Karkitty, what’s got you in a mood this morning?”

Karkat ignored him and took a big breath inwards and Dave noticed Jade giving the ginger a thumbs up from the corner of his eye. Karkat noticed her too, and he squeezed his eyes shut tight.

“DAVE. I FUCKING LOVE YOU.”

He then fell back to the ground, embarrassed and mentally drained. Jade put her hands together in a soft, soundless clap, a grin spreading across her face while Nepeta tried to hold back a squeal of delight. John however, much like Dave, just stood there. Wide-eyed and in shock. Though, Dave was probably in more shock than him even though he quickly managed to recollect himself. Karkat pushed his face back into his arms and began to mumble things into his sleeve.

“Sorry, Karkitty, can you speak up?” Dave cupped a hand to his ear just as the ginger looked up. Shit, his eyes were watering. _‘Don’t cry, don’t cry’_

“I said that you probably hate me now…” His voice was a lot quieter. Barely above a whisper. He looked away and Dave kneeled down beside him and put an arm around his shoulder.

“What makes you think I’d hate you?”

Karkat frowned, “You’re into chicks, right?”

“Karkles, _please_ , I’m a straight as a fuckin’ donut.” He laughed.

The ginger’s head shot up with confusion, “What?”

“I like dick.”

He giggled at how Dave was so straightforward and how he had said that so casually, with a little shrug of the shoulders. The albino smiled and took off his shades so that he was staring directly into the other’s eyes; red iris’ connecting.

“Guess what?”

Karkat’s smile thinned a little. He wasn’t too fond of guessing games.

“What?”

“I really ‘fucking love you’ too.”

That took a little bit for the ginger to register. He kind of just sat there for a few minutes with a facial expression similar to something one might make during math class until what Dave said finally reached him. His eyes sparkled a little bit but he refrained from pulling the other into a hug. He couldn’t show how soft he was, Dave would never let him live it down. No-one would. He only managed a small and unsure, ‘really?’

The albino smiled softly, “Yes, really.”


	15. Chapter 15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> screams  
> i have no idea what im doin  
> pls send help  
> ive lost all motivation for this story atm but like, i need to keep updatin for u guys so im gonna keep tryin :')
> 
> also ive been writin in 2nd pov for the last few months give or take and i accidentally changed from 3rd to 2nd pov w/o realising  
> ive fixed what i could find but sorry in advance if the tense suddenly changes for no reason in places :')))))

Karkat’s eyes shot open.

His room was dark; the first signs of sunrise seeping in through his window and he turned his head so that he was looking at the bright red numbers that graced the face of his alarm clock.

4:55am.

Groaning, he sat up and rubbed his eyes with the back of his closed fist. He knew there was no point going back to sleep as he only really had an hour until his alarm would go off. An hour and five minutes to be precise. He pulled his blanket up a bit so it sat over his hips and pulled his laptop onto the bed. If he couldn’t go back to sleep so he thought he might as well find a way to speed up the time, right? Besides, everything that happened yesterday at school felt like a dream and he wanted to convince himself that it was real.

He opened Pesterchum and shot Dave a quick message. He didn’t want to be too upfront about the confession just in case it really _was_ a dream. After all, there was no way the albino would actually like him back. It was unlikely. Karkat wasn’t exactly likeable.

After about ten minutes he gave up. Dave obviously wasn’t awake. Either that or he was busy mixing some music or whatever it is he did in his spare time.

The ginger pushed his laptop to the side and he swung his legs over the side of the bed, If he couldn’t sleep, and Dave wasn’t online, he might as well make breakfast. Maybe he could make something decent this morning, he had the time.

He slunk out into the kitchen and pulled a pan off the shelf. Unfortunately, about five other metal bowls came down with it, crashing to the ground. He swore under his breath. Actually, he swore quite loudly. He could feel a headache building up after that sudden noise.

Karkat heard shuffling coming from down the hall and he groaned. He’d woken up Gamzee. He really wasn’t in the mood for the clown’s banter.

“Hey, what’s all up and with all this motherfuckin’ noise?”

His voice sounded far off, dreamy. Perhaps he was still in that tired-faroff state. He must’ve been because usually he hadn’t had his dosage yet and he was usually more irritable at this time

“It’s nothing, Gamzee.”

The clown chuckled, “it didn’t sound like nothin’, bro”

“So I dropped a few pans,” Karkat rolled his eyes, “big deal.”

There was a long awkward pause between them. The ginger must’ve been in a pretty off mood if he were getting worked up over a few dropped pots and pans. Finally Gamzee decided to break the silence.

“So,” He grinned and propped himself up onto the benchtop.

“Gamzee, get your slimy ass off there, I’m about to prepare food.”

He ignored the shorter teen, “What’re you motherfuckin’ makin at this fine hour?”

“Pancakes”

“Pancakes?”

“Yes. Pancakes, Gamzee. That’s what I fucking said.” He moved towards the cupboard and pulled the ready-made mix from the shelf. He was a little too lazy to stir up a bowl of mix from scratch. He turned up the heat on the stove and greased up the pan with butter before pouring decent sized circles onto its sizzling surface. Soon enough, they were ready to flip. Karkat reached over to the cutlery drawer and fished around for a spatula and moved back towards the pan to flip his breakfast. Well, since Gamzee was up he might as well make extras.

“Hey Shitbreath, you want some?”

Gamzee grinned his trademark smile, making the ginger shudder. He hated when he smiled like that, it made him uneasy.

“Damn fuckin’ right I do bro.”

“How many do you want?”

Gamzee looked off into the distance and spoke slowly, “Fuuucckkk, I dunno. However many you wanna fuckin’ cook for me.”

“Fine.” Karkat tried to hide a smirk, “you get half a pancake.”

The clown’s eyes widened with horror and the ginger’s flashed with amusement, “Aw what? Just half a pancake? C’mon bro I want more than that!”

“Heh, you gotta come get more then!”

Gamzee jumped at Karkat, who ducked out of the way quickly with a laugh. He took the spatula and pulled it back with one hand before releasing his missile. A large blob of pancake mixture was rocketed from the utensil, splashing the other right across his cheek. Gamzee laughed, and took the whole bottle of mixture from the bench. Karkat raised his arms in surrender.

“Okay, okay. Don’t waste it. You win.”

A grin was all Gamzee gave. He picked up a burning pancake right of the pan with his fingers as though the heat didn’t faze him. He played around with it for a moment before eating it in one bite. Karkat noticed the charred edges of the treat and he squeaked.

“Holy fuck, they’re burning!” he yelled and rushed to get all of them out of the pan and onto the plate. Their miniature food fight had cost him a tasty breakfast. Oh well, it was better than nothing.

He tossed two to Gamzee and sat down with his. The stoner pushed them into his mouth and waved goodbye to the other as he walked out the door. No doubt to meet Tavros early. Karkat chuckled. He didn’t have the heart to tell him that he was still in his pyjamas.

The ginger finished his meal and got himself ready for school. He did this quicker than usual. He was just incredibly eager to see Dave and he didn’t want to turn up late. Slinging his bag over his shoulder he ran out of the house, (leaving the door unlocked for Gamzee as he would no doubt be back to change after he realised his wardrobe mistake) his thoughts began to wander. What if Dave had just meant that as a joke? He doubted it. Dave might be an asshole but he wasn’t that much of an asshole. Not really. His cheeks were flushed from exhaustion once he reached the school gates but the run was worth it.

Dave was waiting at the gate for him with a small smile on his face. Karkat smiled too. A genuine smile, a real one. The albino greeted him before taking his hand and walking him in. Karkat just knew today would be a good day.


	16. Chapter 16

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> im just makin this story up as i go along now bc all my motivation is gone :')

“Dave, can you please see me outside for a brief moment?”

A chorus of ‘oohs’ and ‘ahhs’ echoed around the room and Dave frowned. He actually enjoyed this class and wasn’t too happy about being disrupted in the middle of it. What could the principal possibly want with him? He followed her outside and leaned against the window in a way most melancholy. Tilting his head to the side, he closed his eyes as she spoke.

“Can you please give this to your parents? It’s important that they read it.”

She handed the albino an envelope and he sighed. Parents. Surely the _principal_ would know very well that he didn’t have any. He looked it over a few times and she began to walk away.

“Wait,” he tried to grab her attention, “Mrs Peixes”

She turned with slight annoyance, “what is it, Dave? I have work I need to be doing.”

There was a pause before he continued, “What is it about?”

“It’s a letter warning them of your expulsion.”

“What? Why?!” He spluttered. Surely this had to be a mistake. He was a good kid, right? The look on her face proved otherwise.

“You have not completed a single piece of assessment this year on time, and the ones you have managed to hand in late are of an E to D standard. You, according to the system, have been found reportedly skipping class and it just doesn’t seem like you’re putting in any effort.”

Harsh. Dave felt a pang of guilt. What would Karkat think if he was expelled?

“Is… there a way to keep me in here?”

Peixes thought about this for a moment before waving her hand dismissively, “You’re going to need to bring up your grades so that you’re receiving marks that are of a C average or higher on _all_ of your subjects.”

Shit. That was going to be a struggle. Especially in Biology. He had never passed that, it was too difficult for him. Well, that Leijon girl also did that subject, apparently due to her ‘love for animals’, so maybe he could ask her for tutoring. She was an A student after all. Dave was pretty sure it was because she dissected animals in her free time. And as for maths, he could probably ask Jade. She was good at that. The albino thought over his other subjects with disdain. No-one else he knew were doing great in any of those other ones. He’d have to actually start paying attention in them in order to pass.

He’d also have to tell Karkat that their ‘mid-classs rendezvous’ behind the Man Arts building had to stop.

He walked back into his classroom and re-seated himself between Eridan and Vriska. He didn’t particularly like the two, but they were the only ones he knew in here. Eridan seemed to be tapping away on his phone from behind his text book with a smug grin quickly spreading over his face. Dave noticed this and leaned over.

“Yo, Eridweeb. What’s got you so haughty?”

The blonde surpassed a growl of sorts and gently placed his phone screen-down onto the desk. “What’s it to you?” He spat.

“Just wondering.”

“Hmph. Well, it’s none of your fuckin business.”

Well that conversation went swimmingly. He turned to Vriska, hoping to spark up something but he flinched when he noticed her already staring at him. She was smirking, and it honestly made him a little bit uneasy.

“What..?”

She shook her head, not taking her eyes off of him, “Oh, nothing~ Just there’s a bit of a rumour going on about you and shorty.”

“Who, Karkat?”

“No, Gamzee.” She rolled her eyes and Dave frowned. That sarcasm wasn’t necessary. He ran his hand through his hair with a sigh.

“What is it?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know?”

This was fine. Dave knew just how to deal with people like that. He fished into his back pocket and pulled out a five dollar note and passed it to Vriska under the desk. “Spill.”

“Alright, so,” She pushed the note into her pocket with a grin, “you know how you and Karkat run off like, every say during 2nd period?”

He nodded and she continued, “Well, people are starting to say that he and you go and fuck behind the toilet block.”

That caught him by surprise. They had only done that, what? Twice? Usually they just sit together and talk shit about people they don’t like or watch the clouds go by together.

“That’s bullshit.”

Vriska shrugged and turned back to her work, “don’t shoot the messenger.”

Dave figured he should tell Karkat about that when the lunch break came around. That was three lots of bad news and he didn’t know if the ginger could take it all at once. The expulsion, not being able to see him during class and the rumour. He rubbed his temples in frustration. How would he deliver this? He’d probably just sweeten up the mood by giving out all of his compliments and cuddles. Well, even though they were dating they still treated each other like shit. So compliments and cuddles might be a little bit suspicious. Maybe a ‘what up bitch’ and a playful smack to the back would suffice. The albino mentally punched himself. He decided to just go all out and say it. After all, avoiding it would make the situation worse and perhaps Karkat would even take the news better than he did.

He snapped out of his thoughts and picked up his pen. If he was going to try and turn this around the best he could do was start working. He looked up at the board and his face fell. He had a lot to catch up on.


	17. Chapter 17

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> hi i'm kodi and i formally apologise for this accidental 6 month haitus

Shit. Karkat was NOT in a good mood.

Dave swallowed and tried not to make eye contact. He could more or less _feel_ the shitty aura wafting from the ginger’s body. What could have possibly happened in the last lesson to make him this volatile? Perhaps now was not the best time to tell him about the news.

He adjusted his shades and tried to look at the other via his peripheral vision. Karkat was fuming. He could swear that he was foaming at the mouth. Gross.

Dave knew that he should probably go and comfort him. After all, that’s what boyfriends do, right? Comfort the pissed off one and tell them to be less… Pissed.

He shook his head. No, that’d anger him even more. Dave decided to ask John what was going on, seeing as those two shared a class last period. John looked suspiciously guilty and the albino raised an eyebrow of concern. He just _knew_ he had done something.

Moving from his position at the lunch table, he leaned in besides John’s ear and whispered an accusing, ‘what the fuck dude’. He just shrugged in response - the expression on his face screaming mischief. He wasn’t going to tell Dave outright, and didn’t look like he intended to. He seemed intimidated by the other’s serious expression.

“Johnny my buddy, pal, friendio, broski,” Dave slung an arm over his shoulders and gave him a menacing grin, “why’s my bf being all crabby?”

John snorted at Dave’s accidental pun before shrugging a second time and poking his lunchbox with his pencil. It looked like he had tried to start some homework early, judging by the book in front of him. It also looked like he had lost interest the minute he opened it. There was less than a sentence on his page.

Taking a deep breath in, he sighed.

“I found out Karkat doesn’t like being pranked,” He muttered an ‘oops’ and if they listened hard enough, they could hear the ginger grumbling under his breath from beside them.

“Pranked?”

“Yeah,” he mumbled, “I’m not gonna tell you the whole story but tl;dr he got into some serious shit with Kankri. Y’know, the older brother.”

Karkat rolled his eyes and buried his head in his arms. It wasn’t even ‘serious shit’, John had just embarrassed the hell out of him. For once, Kankri had actually finished a lesson earlier than anticipated and had decided that the class play a game of truth or dare. Of course, with the rules that you couldn’t dare someone to take their clothes off or make out with other students. Actually, there were a lot of rules.

John had gotten to ask the ginger a question, as he had selected truth. He hated dares, because the one time he did choose it they made him lick the carpet. Which was really dirty and unhygienic. The prankster had jokingly asked him if he was a virgin, and since he had to tell the truth, he mumbled a small ‘no’ under his breath. Unfortunately Kankri had heard and proceeded to give him a lecture about safe sex, STI avoidance and how he should have just stayed celibate or something because he was too young to be partaking in such practices. In front of the class. Poor Karkat had been mortified.

John finished explaining this to Dave and he couldn’t help but frown slightly.

“Dude, how is that a prank?”

John thought about that for a moment, “jokes, pranks, they’re the same thing in my books.”

Dave turned to the ginger and gave him a gentle kiss on the top of his head.  

“Hey, bro. Kankri’s just jealous because you’re getting more dick than he is.”

Jade overheard and gasped, while Terezi giggled, obviously amused. Karkat growled at the albino, even though he was trying his hardest not to laugh himself. He did have a good point. After all, He didn’t think that his brother had gotten any in his life. Though he would have appreciated it if Dave kept his voice down.

“Thanks, fucklord, you always know how to cheer me up,” he muttered sarcastically, rolling his eyes.

Dave took this as an invitation to finally drop his kind of awful news. It just tumbled out of his mouth like word vomit.

“Great! Since you’re happy again I should probably tell you that the shitty-ass principal chick told me that I’m probably going to get my enrolment cancelled if I don’t get my shit together ASAP.”

Karkat hit his head on the table so hard out of annoyance that he could’ve given himself a concussion before looking the albino dead in his shade-covered eyes.

“We need to get you a tutor… or five. You get kicked out of school and I’m going to kick you, violently.”

“What if I’m into that?”

“Shut the fuck up, shitsponge. This is serious.”

Dave faltered. Karkat did have a point, and it didn’t matter how much he joked around, he knew that he needed to start passing or he _would_ get expelled. As much as he disliked school, he didn’t want to leave. He’d lose not only Karkat but his friends as well. Sure he could visit them, but it wasn’t the same.

He sighed, “well in that case, I need a tutor for maths, biology, history and Tourism.”

John laughed, “you need a tutor in _Tourism_?”   
Dave shot him a look that told him that if he didn’t shut his little mouth he’d cut off his tongue with a switchblade. The prankster quickly went silent.

Jade raised her hand enthusiastically and offered to be his math tutor. Dave knew she’d be interested and graciously accepted her offer. She was an A+ student. His grades should improve if she was teaching him.

Nepeta wasn’t sitting at the table, so he couldn’t ask her about biology. He made a mental note to do it the next time he saw her. No doubt she’d be willing to help also. Though, he couldn’t help the nagging feeling that he’d have to help her do something in return.

Eridan stood in his place and dumped his big, dumb history book onto the table heavily, making not only the table shake like an earthquake had struck, but it also made Terezi fall onto the floor in fright. Groans echoed out around the table.

“I will be your History tutor! You will be my student!”

Dave’s face paled. No, anyone but him. Sollux looked up from his phone with a smirk. He didn’t talk much while the group was together – sometimes everyone doesn’t even notice he’s there – but when Eridan made a comment he was always prepared with a sarcastic reply of some sort.

“More like you’ll be hith perthonal shitty whiny bitch and he’ll be your unfortunate ventpotht.”

Yeah. Dave did not want to be on the receiving end of Eridan’s endless complaining. He knew that he’d get next to no tutoring and instead would just have to deal with his stupid problems. Sollux turned to Dave, grinning. His bicolour eyes glinted with mischief from underneath his glasses.

“I’ll be your tutor inthtead.”


	18. Chapter 18

“No, idiot, Kevin Rudd wath the one who made the apology to the aboriginethe, not Abraham Lincoln.”

Sollux sighed, taking off his glasses and propping them on the coffee table that sat between himself and Dave. He was starting to regret his decision to be his tutor, as he had no idea just how hard it was for Dave to retain information in that big skull of his. Running his hands through his blonde hair, he hummed to himself. He was thinking about dying it back to its natural colour, black, as he was pretty certain his roots were starting to show.

“How did you even _get_ Abraham Lincoln ath your anthwer? He’th got nothing to do with this country or period of time,” the hacker grumbled.

Dave shrugged in annoyance, “maybe I mixed up some info man, I dunno.”

Sollux smiled sympathetically before stretching and lying back against the couch, his head half disappearing into a big, plump cushion. He felt bad for Dave, he really did. The kid was trying his damned hardest to try to pass this subject and he felt like it was his duty to help him get at least a sound C on his report card. Though, it wasn’t going to be easy.

Closing his book heavily with a huff, Dave looked at the clock, then to the window, then to the clock again – his face slowly contorting into one of panic. He was only supposed to be staying over a couple of hours for study, but Sollux had been putting up with his mistakes well into the night. He looked over to the boy, taking note of the way his chest rose and fell steadily with each relaxed breath. He didn’t seem troubled by the albino’s prolonged visit, but Dave still felt bad for staying longer than he intended. Sollux surely had study time of his own that he needed to complete.

He began quietly packing away his belongings into his schoolbag, not noticing when the other looked over to him with a raised eyebrow. Sollux leaned over the table and lazily placed a hand on Dave’s large history textbook when he reached to pick it up. Dave gave him a confused look, but Sollux just smiled softly.

“Hey, it’th late. Just crash here for the night. I’m sure my parenth won’t mind.”

He thought about this for a moment, and after opening his mouth a couple of times as though he was trying to find a valid argument to avoid it, he sighed and nodded in defeat.

“All right, fine. I’ll wash my own clothes though… because I need to wear this again in the morning and I don’t want to dump my load on your fam.”

“I’ll just grab thomething from my room for you to wear to bed, I’m sure you’ll fit in my shit,” Sollux chuckled, rolling off the couch so that he was standing up, stretching his arms above his head with his shirt pulling up to show his lower abdomen. Dave would never admit that he caught himself staring, no way in hell. Perving on your boyfriend’s best friend was kind of forbidden or something. He couldn’t really help it, but despite the guy being a literal twig, he was actually kind of hot. Something else he would never admit.

Unfortunately, Sollux did notice Dave’s eyes piercing his figure and he quickly dropped his arms with a huff. He spent a lot of his time around others as an observer, so it was easy for him to pick up on little things like that. Shaking it to the back of his mind, he pointed to the linen cupboard.

“I’m going to grab you thome blankets and…” he paused and looked around the room before clicking his tongue, “… the blow up mattreth from the thpare room. We jutht uthe the thpare room ath thome thort of thtorage thpace.”

Dave tried his hardest to keep a straight face. That was a lot of lisping for one sentence.  He had to be polite though, after all, Sollux was offering his hospitality. He also didn’t want to make him do all the work, so he walked over and got a blanket from the cupboard while the other got the mattress and an air pump.

Sollux ushered Dave into his room where he dumped the lifeless bed on the ground, plugging the pump into it roughly. The albino took the other’s distraction as an opportunity to scope out his room. It was surprisingly clean, all besides his computer desk. There were plates, food containers and cups (mugs and plastic) strewn everywhere. This only appeared to be because his bin was full and he had nowhere to dump his excess rubbish. Still, he could just replace the bin-bag.

Hearing the air pump snapped him out of his thoughts and he skipped over to Sollux, brushing him away from the device stubbornly.

“Nah my man, I’m gonna pump it on my own, alright?”

Sollux raised his hands along with his eyebrows, the corner of his mouth twitching upwards into an odd smirk, “yeah, okay, whatever floath your boat.”

It took a second for the humour in his voice to register with the Texan and he let out an over-exaggerated groan, “that’s… that’s not what I meant.”

“Ahaha, I’m jutht having thome fun with you. Ignore me.”

Dave just rolled his eyes in response and continued making work of his arm muscles while Sollux flopped himself backwards onto his bed, the frame squeaking slightly from the sudden added weight. He held his phone close to his face, cursing when he realised that the reason why the screen looked so blurry was because he left his glasses in the other room. He wondered whether or not he should go and get them, but decided against it. He was comfy and his lazy ass was not moving any time soon.

After about ten minutes, Dave finally had the bed full of air with the blankets messily tucked over and around it. He was exhausted and kind of unfit. He was glad the other never really made a comment about how out of breath he was. It seemed like something he would do. Curious about Sollux’s sudden silence, he propped himself up beside him on his elbows and jokingly nudged him in the side with his head.

“What’s up, Captor? You’ve gone mute,” he said softly.

Sollux waved his hand in a dismissive way before mumbling out, “Ampora ith being a cunt again, and it’th honethtly pithing me off.”

“Dude, lemme in on the deets.”

Sighing, the blond handed his phone over to the albino and Dave scanned through numerous Tumblr messages with a groan. It was nothing particularly bad, it was just all incredibly annoying. By ‘being a cunt’, Dave assumed Sollux just meant that he was being spammed by the conceited rich boy.

“I don’t know how you put up with him,” he sighed. Sollux shrugged in response, taking the phone off him, switching it off, and expertly tossing it over onto his computer desk. Dave had to admit that he was impressed, if he tried tossing any object it’d probably fly in the direction opposite to where he was aiming and smash everywhere. That’s what usually happened to him, anyway.

Actually, speaking of Eridan, it reminded Dave about something that he had been meaning to ask the other for a while.

“So… are you two dating?”

Sollux choked on his spit and sat up, looking mildly offended, “fuck no, wouldn’t catch me sitting on hith dick. I’m pretty sure everyone theemth to think I do, though.”

“Yeah, everyone’s pretty convinced. I’m pretty sure Feferi and Nepeta have a bet on you two.”

Sollux said nothing, and instead made a mental note to punt them both later. He had no romantic _or_ sexual attraction to the rich kid, and if anything, he only saw him as an annoying brother. It’d be a shame if Eridan actually liked him, because he couldn’t reciprocate his feelings and probably never would.

“Nah,” the blonde smiled, “if anything Ampora and I are jutht clothe friendth. Like, yeah, we pith each other off but it’th all in good fun. Thometimeth.”

Sollux and Eridan. Friends. Dave never would have guessed due to the fact that the two were always deliberately finding ways to drive the other off the deep end. Falling down from Sollux’s bed and onto his back, the albino let out a deep sigh. He briefly considered messaging Karkat that he wasn’t going to be home tonight, but decided not to, seeing as he was fairly certain that before they parted ways after school, the ginger had off-handly mentioned something about going out for dinner with Kankri and his dad. He probably wouldn’t have his phone on him if that was the case, so there’d be no point in trying. He’d leave a message later.

The room seemed to go silent for a while, and Dave assumed that Sollux wasn’t a very social person. Not that he minded, after all, the quiet was soothing. He could hear the sounds of crickets outside and… music? Why could he hear music all of a sudden? It was getting louder by the second, too.

He sat up, eyebrows furrowed together in confusion. He glanced over to Sollux, but the noise wasn’t coming from him. If anything, the kid looked somewhat annoyed by the sudden, loud interruption coming from the other side of the wall. Whoever was playing it had really bad taste.   
Sollux let out a groan, leaned behind him and almost broke a hole in the wall by how hard he hit his knuckles against it.

“Turn that shit off, Mituna!” he yelled, earning him nothing more than a sarcastic comment in return from what Dave assumed was his brother. He turned to the other and rubbed his temples with a sigh, “he’s not going to shut up anytime thoon, apparently.”

Nodding, Dave tried his hardest not to chuckle. Having your brother blast loud music while you’re trying to chill out was so much better in his opinion than when his brother would blast anime porn. He’d take music over that any day. Sollux leaned over the side of his bed and tapped him on the shoulder. Dave looked at him, his head cocking to the side as if anticipating what Captor had to say.

“Tho, I’m bored and Tumblr’th not cutting it. You want to do thomething?”

The abino looked around him before glancing up at the other’s clock. It wasn’t exactly a good time for doing anything, really, “Sollux, it’s like, fucking eight pm. What kind of shit could we even do?”

Sollux paused and shrugged. It seemed he didn’t think that through exactly. Now that Dave thought about it, the guy probably didn’t do anything with his time other than scream at twelve year olds on Call of Duty or something and that, wasn’t exactly Dave’s idea of fun. He was going to suggest videogames, but after thinking that, he decided that it might not be a good idea. Especially since, well, he never really played anything. Yet another thing he wouldn’t admit. What kind of teenage boys don’t play Xbox? Him.

Seeing as neither of the two boys seemed to have any ideas, the room went silent again (ignoring Mituna’s crappy tunes), though, it was more of the awkward silence. Not only that, Sollux’s room was also incredibly hot and stuffy, which made it hard for Dave to concentrate on the game he had pulled up on his phone to make use of the spare time he had.

“Man, can you open up a window or some shit? It’s lit like my fucking mixtape in here,” he said, fanning himself to emphasise his question.

Sollux laughed before replying, “nah, otherwithe I get bugth in my room becauthe they’re attracted to the lighth. Altho, your mixthtape ith probably shit.”

That made the albino’s eyebrows crease together in an offended frown, before he grumbled something under his breath, fists gripping cloth at the bottom of his shirt before he tugged it over his shoulders effortlessly.

“Can’t open a window then my nip nops get to fly free. Sorry dude, I don’t make the rules.”

Sollux bit his lip and raked his eyes over Dave’s body in a predatory manner as payback for when he noticed the other doing the same to him earlier. Though, he was kind of attractive… “I’m not complaining.”

“Sollux,” Dave mumbled with a deadpan expression, “I have a boyfriend, you know that.”

“Didn’t seem like it the way you were looking at me earlier.”

The albino faltered after realising that Sollux had done that as payback and he could tell how heavy the sarcasm sat on the blonde’s words. This earned a stoic smirk from the other, who took his silence as a chance to continue, “thee? You’d totally jump on me if you had the chanthe.”

“No. I wouldn’t.”

“You hethitated, though. Don’t lie.”

Sighing, Dave rolled over and smashed his face into his pillow. Yeah sure, he had an aesthetic attraction to Sollux ever since he joined the school, even though he had never really been close to him. After all, he really admired how he could dress like a complete dumbass but still look hot. Though, he had never really considered, well, ‘getting freaky’ with him until me hinted at it just then. God, no wonder Eridan is always in a bad mood around him, Sollux sure knew how to rile people up. Even though Dave was trying to ignore the other, Sollux just kept on talking. God, what was he going on about now?

“I’m the betht at BJth. You know I’ve given KK head before? I’m sure he’d thay the thame thing,” he shrugged casually, like it was the kind of thing people usually talked about at sleepovers and it made Dave shoot up in confusion.

“Wait, he told me he was a virgin when we started dating,” he said, eyes wide.

Sollux shook his head no, paused, then mumbled to himself slightly, “nah he’th done that shit a few timeth… though he probably doethn’t conthider oral worth ‘lothing his virginity’ over. Some people don’t. Thothe guyth usually believe actually fucking properly ith the only way to lothe it.”  
“Oh uh, it’d be betht to not let him know I told you… he’ll destroy me aha,” he added nervously. He needed to watch his mouth and start thinking before he spoke.

He shrugged and Dave relaxed a little bit. Sollux had a point thee. Everyone has different opinions on what made one ‘impure’ or whatever. Now Dave felt the need to get the deets on everyone Karkat had ever fooled around with, but figured it’d be best not to pry into his boyfriend’s private sex life unless he actually told him himself. 

It seemed Sollux had gone quiet due to how awkward he probably felt. Or maybe he was going over every way Karkat would kill him. Either way, it seemed he had run out of things to say for the time being. Dave lay back down and rolled over onto his side and tried to stop himself from laughing hysterically because, well… if he once thought Karkat was innocent before he definitely didn’t now.

Snorting as he held his breath, he whispered to himself, “Karkles has some explaining to do.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i... i have nothing to say   
> this is just me contemplating whether or not i'll write smut for this later  
> also i needed a filler chapter  
> i am sorry
> 
> tho hey i guess no-ones complaining bc i actually updated, right? :"3


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